I want to be a hero!
by batty1377
Summary: This is a story of a new hero joining Saitama and Genos on their adventures. This story focuses on his experience of climbing his way through the Hero Association alongside these two powerful heroes. Feel free to criticize.(Due to school, as well as working on other projects, release dates for future chapters will receive a delay)
1. Chapter 1: The Bug

Shunshi was a seventeen year old boy who made sure to keep in above average shape and had shoulder length hair with spiked tips.

One day, while riding the train, he saw an advertisement for some sort of new company called the Hero Association. Not knowing what to think of it, he made a mental note to look up more information once he got home.

Once he had returned home, where he lived with his with his Mother and Father, while his older sister was away at college to become a doctor, he looked up the 'Hero Association' on his laptop and found a commercial being narrated by a pretty girl in a business suit. The commercial explained that if you passed their entry exam, you could joined up with this organization and, not only would be a part of it make it legal for you to be a vigilante, but you could also get paid for your work as one.

As someone who had always loved superhero comics, Shunshi's interest had obviously more than been peaked.

Now getting very excited, Shunshi felt pretty confident that he could at least pass the entry test for the Hero Association, due to the fact that he was actually pretty athletic and had been studying martial arts since he was twelve years old.

The day after seeing this advertisement, Shunshi decided to ride his bike to the testing center for the Hero Association and see if he could qualify for the job that he, and so many people in the world had wanted since they were children: to be a superhero.

A few hours later; the would-be hero walked away from the testing facility in shame, having received only 62 out of 100 points on his hero test. A minimum of 70 points was needed to pass, so this resulted in him failing.

Despite his pride having been heavily damaged, Shunshi refused to allow his dream to die that easily and, now determined to prove himself as a true hero to this organization, he decided that he needed to train as hard as he assumed superheroes train, until he felt that he was strong enough to join up with the other powerful heroes that were strong enough to make it into the Hero Association; he would even go out and fight weak monsters during his free time.

After three years of intense training, Shunshi was now twenty years old and, while he had not yet joined the Hero Association, he had created a costume for himself, improved his martial arts and physical abilities significantly, and he had unlocked a new ability of the Human body that he was previously unaware of.

His costume was colored black and gray. Most of the suit was made up of flexible, but weak, body armor, while the gauntlets were made of solid steel, had small spikes on the knuckles, and claws on the finger tips. The knee and elbow pads were made of iron and they had small spikes on them as well; He wore a collapsible steel helmet that covered his entire head, as well as his neck; and the final part of Shunshi's costume was a black cloak that went down to the back of his knees.

Shunshi's legs had become strong enough to jumps dozens of feet into the air, fall from great heights and outrun an average car; his arms had also become strong enough to lift several tons.

The new ability of the Human body that Shunshi had unlocked was something that he decided to call 'kie'. Whenever he was using it, it made his body much more durable. It also created what looked like an inch thick field of white flames that covered his entire body. This strange internal energy even healed him at a bit of a faster rate than most normal people. However, Shunshi found that the most useful combat ability of this power was that it allowed him to created balls of light. These balls would cause high powered explosions when he threw them at solid objects; and the more time that he spent creating an individual one, the more powerful the explosion that they created would be.

One day, while exercising and listening to the news, Shunshi heard that there was some sort of deadly mosquito outbreak in City-Z, so he decided to throw on his costume, search through the City-Z and see if he could find any people who either weren't in a state to leave on their own, or just hadn't managed to evacuate yet.

While running through the city at high speeds, Shunshi saw a man breaking in and out of an electronics store. He had a large sack of goods in his left hand and a smirk on his face.

Upon seeing this robber, Shunshi became extremely annoyed and thought "Really? He's robbing a store? Why did this idiot even stay here after the warning was given?! What a pain in the ass."

Despite disliking this man, Shunshi started to make his way towards the robber in order to get him to stop stealing, as well as to get him to safety, but before he could even get all that close to him, a massive swarm of mosquitoes suddenly flew past them both at such a high speed that they created a gust of wind that was powerful enough to blow the cape of Shunshi's cowl into the air. He, then, saw a mosquito land on his arm. He was about to swat it, but, suddenly, half of the entire swarm covered his whole body.

Out of a minor sense of fear and hatred for these bugs, Shunshi shouted in a panicked state "Get off of me, you little bastards!"

He, then, turned on his kie, burning up all of the mosquitoes that were trying to suck his blood in his aura of white flames.

While gasping for breath in an attempt to slow down his panicking heart, Shunshi saw that the crook that he was gonna stop had been drained of all the blood in his body by the mosquitoes, turning him into what looked like a mummy without its bandages on.

Shunshi watched in disgust as these little vampires flew towards some sort of female mosquito monster that was in the sky above them.

The mosquitoes emptied all of the blood they had gathered into her and, after the insect abdomen that was on the back of her waist stopped pulsating red, she complained to the mosquitoes "Oh, come on! That's not nearly enough!"

After stretching her arms out, she spotted Shunshi glaring at her, this made her start smiling sadistically as she licked her lips, pointed at him and said to the mosquitoes "You guys missed one! Go get me some more delicious liquids to drink!"

The mosquitoes, then, formed into, what looked like, an entire river of bugs, a river that was aiming to crash right into Shunshi.

Shunshi's still visible eyes became filled with a horrible rage when the Mosquito Girl gave this order.

As the mosquitos were getting closer to him, he thought to himself in a tone of pure malice "You think you're just gonna turn me into a snack?! Like Hell you will!"

Shunshi, then, started firing a volley of small light balls at the stream of mosquitoes that was headed for him, each of them creating a powerful explosion on contact with these insects. This attack managed to hold the river of mosquitoes at bay for the time being.

The Mosquito Girl looked very annoyed by this Human's audacity to think that he deserved to have his blood more than she did, so she suddenly vanished with speed that was too much for Shunshi to keep track of. She, then, reappeared behind him.

Taking his attention away from the mosquitoes for a moment, Shunshi instantly realized that the monster had gotten behind him, so he spun himself around in order to round-house kick her in her head, but she easily dodged his attack and clawed at his torso, ripping open the chest of his costume and cutting into his flesh a little bit. Aside from the sharpness of her claws, the amount of strength behind her attack resulted in him being sent flying into a nearby building.

While laying on his back in a mixture of the rubble of the building's wall and his own blood, Shunshi thought to himself in a pain filled voice "I'm pretty sure that that would have killed me if I didn't have kie... Is she a Demon level threat?! Ah crap, I'm way out of my league here!"

After having thousands of more mosquitoes come to her from out of nowhere, the Mosquito Girl pointed at Shunshi and, with nothing but pure sadism in her voice, she shouted to the mosquitoes "Suck out every last drop of that delicious red goo from the blood bag over there!"

While looking at the horde of mosquitoes getting ready to mummify him, Shunshi thought in panic "Oh, shit! Is this the end for me?! I didn't even get a chance to try and join up with the Hero Association again! No no no no no!"

However, before the mosquitoes could move in on Shunshi, a large fire ball was thrown at Mosquito Girl, but she saw the attack coming, so she had it intercepted by the mosquitoes that she had just gathered up around her, resulting in them all being incinerated instead of her.

Forcing himself to ignore the pain coming from his bleeding chest, Shunshi climbed out of the hole that he was in and saw his savior: a young man with blond hair, black and yellow eyes, and metal arms, with what looked like fire coming out of said arms.

After quickly looking this kid over, Shunshi thought to himself in confusion "I don't remember seeing anyone like him on the hero registry... Is he new?"

Not having noticed that Shunshi was even there, the young man pointed one of his arms at Mosquito Girl and said coldly "I am going to eliminate you. Hold still."

The Mosquito Girl looked a little confused by the young man's statement, before she started laughing manically.

She, then, asked him in an angered and psychotic tone of voice "You're going to eliminate me?... Just try it!"

Without a moment of hesitation, the young man shot a large ball of fire at the Mosquito Girl, but she quickly dodged it. The young man, then, ran up the side of a building, jumped off of the building's wall and tried to punch Mosquito Girl while he was in the air, but, she once again dodged the attack and used one of her claws to slash across the young man's back, creating sparks against his apparently metal torso. She, then, tried to slice at his head, but he managed to block her attack, launch himself back towards the building and then launch himself back at her while throwing another punch, which she countered with a punch of her own, before slamming him into the ground.

After the young man had hit the ground with enough force to crush a car, he was left completely unfazed by her attack and he just got back onto his feet.

After watching all of this spectacular combat between this blond haired boy and the feminine mosquito monster, Shunshi couldn't help but think to himself in pure amazement and shock "Holy crap! This kid must be in, like, the top 10 of A-Class or something!"

The young man, then, pointed his hand into the air and calmly said "Incinerate."

He, then, shot a machine gun of fire blasts at the Mosquito Girl, but she was easily flying towards him while maneuvering around each shot. After she had quickly closed in on the young man, she used the horn on her head to impale the arm that he was shooting fire at her with; ripping off most of it in the process.

When Shunshi saw this happen, he became incredibly worried about the metal boy that was fighting a monster all on his own and thought to himself "Oh no! What am I doing just sitting here?! I have to do something to help him!"

While reaching around the outside of the hole he got put into, he dug the claws of his gauntlet into some stable wall and quickly began climbing up the side of the building. After making it to the top of the building, straight at the Mosquito Girl.

When he got close enough to the female monster, he punched her in the back of her head, sending her flying towards the ground.

Out of genuine shock, Shunshi thought in confusion "I... actually hit her?"

He, then, landed a few feet from where he had put her into the ground, looked to see if he had, by some miracle, killed her. However, all he got was another shock when he saw that her legs had seemingly been ripped off.

In a completely baffled tone of voice, Shunshi asked out loud "What the heck?! I took her legs off with a punch to the back of the head?! How the Hell does that even work?!"

After freaking out about possibly breaking the laws of physics for a second, he saw the young man walking towards him and holding the monster's legs in his remaining hand, before just throwing them to the ground.

While seeing the metal armed man tossing away the Mosquito Girl's legs, Shunshi muttered to himself in confusion "Wait... when did you..."

Thinking back to when Mosquito Girl had torn off this robot guy's arm, Shunshi realized that he must have torn them off at that point in the fight.

After piecing this together, Shunshi took a bow and said in a respectful tone to the young man "Hello there, I am Shunshi."

The young man replied to him in polite, but disinterested tone "I'm Genos. Now please move aside, so that I can finish that bug woman off for good."

As soon as Genos said this, the Mosquito Girl, with a terrified look on her face, flew back into the air as fast as she could, in order to get away from Genos.

Shunshi started charging up another larger light ball in order to try and stop her, but, before he could fire it, Genos shot off a large fire ball that was equal in destructive force to what Shunshi was trying to do, but he managed to fire it off in just one third of the amount of time that it would have taken him to charge up his attack.

Before the fire attack could hit Mosquito Girl, another swarm of mosquitoes formed around her and took the hit for her once again.

Having become slightly frustrated with this monster's insect based defense, Genos stated coldly "You cannot escape me."

A moment of continued fighting later, both Genos and Shunshi were running after Mosquito Girl as she flew away, but she eventually stopped when, what looked like over a million mosquitoes, flew at her and formed into an orb of bugs.

Starting to get a little grossed out by all of the bugs, Shunshi thought to himself in a somewhat frightened tone "I hope that this Genos guy has enough fire power to take out all of these parasites."

Genos starred at the swarm of mosquitoes for a second before preparing to fire off another massive fire blasts from his remaining arm.

The golden haired teenager, then, looked at Shunshi and said to him in a demanding tone "Get on top of a building as quickly as you can. Right now!"

Before Genos could fire off his attack, or Shunshi could start climbing to the top of a building, their attention got grabbed by some weird looking bald man was running down the street in their direction, all while spraying bug spray in the air at a mosquito and shouting furiously at the bug "Get back here, dammit!"

When the bald man got near the two of them, he asked while looking at the giant orb of mosquitoes "What's that squirming thing up there? Is it... mosquitoes?"

In a calm tone of voice, Genos said to the bald man "You over there. Evacuate now." In response to this order, the bald man just gave Genos a confused look.

Shunshi, then, stated to the man in an alarmed tone of voice "Inside that swarm is a powerful monster that has mosquitoes drain people of all their blood. The monster is even strong enough to beat a powerful hero like me. And it even took off... um... Genos' arm!"

The bald man looked a little frightened when he heard this and then asked "Is that so? That's bad! We gotta get-" Before the bald man could finish his sentence, the giant ball of mosquitoes started flying down at the three of them.

Shunshi immediately did as Genos told him to do earlier, and jumped, ran and climbed up to the top of a nearby building, while the yellow eyed hero quickly charged up and shot off a fire blast that was powerful enough to cover the streets of an entire city block in scorching flames, thus incinerating all of the mosquitos that the Mosquito Girl had gathered up.

After Genos had finished his attack, Shunshi was taking from all the excitement and sitting against an exhaust vent on top of the building that he climbed up.

Placing the palm of his gauntlet to his helmet, Shunshi thought to himself in relief "Good thing a pro-hero like Genos showed to save the day."

After relaxing for a few more seconds, he realized that, much to his horror, he had left the bald man back on the street. This caused Shunshi to fall to his knees and think in despair "What kind of hero just leaves an innocent person behind in order to save his own skin!? How could I have failed so horribly?! He's probably been burnt to a crisp now!"

After continuing to freak out for a second, Shunshi could hear talking coming from the streets below, so he quickly ran over to the side of the building and saw Genos and the bald man, who was now naked, standing next to each other.

He, then, jumped down from the building to the burnt up city streets so that he could try and talk to this strange bald person.

As Shunshi walked towards him, the now naked bald man said to Genos "Man. You really made them bug out! Ba-dum-dum-tsh... get it? I was making a joke with them being bugs and-"

Just as Shunshi was about to try and ask this person who he was and how he was still alive, the three men heard some crazy laughter coming from where the Mosquito Girl had been in the air.

The Mosquito Girl had returned, with her legs now grown back, her skin and claws now turned red and black, and her white hair had now become completely unruly.

After finishing her laughter, the Mosquito Girl stated in an arrogant tone to the three standing people below her "Idiots! I no longer need the little ones! Just look at how strong I've become."

In a demonstration of her power, she slashed one of her claws through the air in the direction of a building, demolishing that building with just the wind force of her attack, all the while, horrifying Genos and Shunshi. However, the bald man remained strangely calm, in fact, he seemed to have no response to this display of destruction at all.

Within an instant, the Mosquito Girl had flown behind Genos and slashed open half of his torso before he was even able to figure out what happened. Shunshi tried to attack her in order to help Genos, but she, without even looking in his direction, kicked Shunshi in his pelvis, breaking it and leaving him unable to stand up.

Desperate to defend himself, Genos tried to turn around and punch at her, but, before his attack could even hit her, she effortlessly slapped him hundreds of feet into the air.

She quickly followed him around in the air, smacking him around each time she got near him, cutting off more and more of his robotic body with each attack.

Genos eventually started falling back down towards the ground, but he was torn to shreds with only his metal spine keeping his two halves together. With a bloodthirsty smile on her face, Mosquito Girl started rushing at the falling Genos. From some strange reason, as the monster woman was getting closer to him, a ball of light started forming in Genos' chest.

This horrible sight caused Shunshi to shout at Mosquito Girl in a pleading horrified tone "NO, STOP! Leave him alone!"

Before anything else could happen, the naked bald man moved in front of the Mosquito Girl and slapped her in her face hard enough to send her flying towards a building at extremely high speeds, resulting in her being exploded into a mass of blood as soon as she hit the building's side.

The bald man, with a small, satisfied smile on his face, said in an amused tone "Mosquitoes... suck."

Out of pure amazement for this man's feat of power, Shunshi thought to himself in utter confusion "He... I... What just?... This guy is strong... He most be a new S-Class hero!"

Feeling that he had no more reason to stick around, the bald man started walking away, but before he could go very far, Genos shouted to him in an urgent tone of voice "Hold on!"

The bald man turned to look at him and replied emotionlessly "What's up?"

While struggling to keep his head up, Genos stated "Please tell me your name."

The bald man, still without any emotion, replied "It's Saitama."

Hearing this, Genos exclaimed "I'd like to be your disciple!"

Upon hearing this, Shunshi thought in surprise "Wait a second. You can just ASK a S-Class hero for something like that?!"

Saitama simply replied to Genos' request with an unconcerned "Oh, okay... huh?"

Hoping against hope, Shunshi shouted to Saitama as well "I'd like you to teach me too!"

Saitama, then, stared over at Shunshi and asked in a puzzled tone "Wait, what?"

* * *

Hello, my alias is Batt1377 and there are a few interesting things about the One Punch Man universe that some fans aren't aware of that I feel should be mentioned: First off, there are no countries in this world; all of civilization is on one super continent and each of this world's so called 'cities' are each about the size of a large country; really puts into perspective how dangerous a Demon Level threat really is if it could destroy one of THIS world's cities.

The second thing worth mentioning is that, in this universe, the Earth has four moons, each the size of the one in real life. I have no idea what purpose having four moons serves to the story, but they're there.

That's about it, thanks for reading the first chapter and I hope you enjoy the rest of the story. If you don't, please tell me why.


	2. Chapter 2: The House

During the two days that the aspiring hero named Shunshi was recovering from his fight alongside Genos and Saitama against the Mosquito Girl, he was healing his broken pelvis by resting in bed all day. Due to a combination of genuine curiosity and having nothing to do, Shunshi had decided to grab his laptop and look up the two heroes that saved his life yesterday, on the Hero Registry.

Even after looking over the Hero Registry over twenty times, Shunshi had found absolutely no trace of either of his saviors on it.

While thinking to himself in confusion at the lack of information on Genos and Saitama, Shunshi asked himself "... Maybe they both just recently joined up and haven't been officially added yet?... I guess I'll just ask them about it after I join the Hero Association myself. I don't want heroes as powerful as them to not let me train with them for not being officially registered yet... They might get mad."

Having scared himself with this idea, Shunshi created a vision in his mind of Genos and Saitama forcing him to leave the S-Class hero's training grounds after finding out that he wasn't a registered hero.

The imaginary version of Genos stated in a cold anger towards Shunshi while getting one of his fire blasters ready "How dare you lie to us! Leave or else you shale be incinerated!"

The imaginary version of Saitama glared at viciously at Shunshi and stated in a furious tone, while cracking his knuckles "I can't believe that some sort of fake hero was wasting the time of a S-Class hero like me! Get lost or get crushed!"

Due to having a very intense imagination, Shunshi began shuttering in fear at his imaginary versions of Genos and Saitama, so much so that he couldn't stay focused on his research anymore.

A few minutes of self doubt and mindlessly staring at his computer screen later, Shunshi's father walked into his son's room and saw that he was still in bed and looking through the Hero Association website on his laptop.

In a concerned tone, Shunshi's dad thought to himself "He's still in bed? I thought he healed really fast now or something... Oh God, is he crippled?!"

After processing through all of his fearful thoughts, Shunshi's father, in a mostly calm but still somewhat friendly tone, asked his son "You feeling better yet?"

Having finally taken notice that his dad was in the room with him, Shunshi snapped out of deep thought, quickly closed his laptop and replied with a smile "Yeah, thanks, dad. I'll be back in fighting condition by tomorrow morning."

Shunshi's father, then, looked at him with a mixture of worry and disappointment on his face when he mentioned going back out to fight more monsters.

Now speaking in an upset tone, Shunshi's father asked "Are you serious!? I thought that after you'd gotten your first real beating, you'd finally get some sense knocked into your head, give up on all this hero nonsense and finally get a real job!"

Visibly flinching, Shunshi was clearly frightened when his dad said this, so he desperately replied to him with a half pleading half offended look on his face "Dad, please listen! I'm met up with an A-Class hero and a S-Class hero when I got these injuries; I'm going to go train with them tomorrow. If the training goes as well as I expect it to go, then I'll be ready to join the Hero Association in a month. I'll probably even make it into B-Class!... Besides, the monster that beat me was a Demon Level threat... And you know that I've beaten twelve Wolf Level threats and seven Tiger Level threats during my training. I'll totally make it into the Hero Association."

Shunshi's father looked at his son with concern and sadness in his eyes for a second, before getting a more serious look and sternly commanding "Either you join the Hero Association by the end of the month or you get a job and give up on this whole hero business for good!"

His mood having been drastically improved by his dad's words, Shunshi replied to him excitedly "Of course! Thank you so much, dad!"

Seeing his son get excited like this, Shunshi's father smiled in return and thought to himself while leaving his son's room "Even with those new powers of his, he'll be lucky to make it even into C-Class. He'll give up on all this hero nonsense soon enough, anyway. Then he'll get a proper job, be able to take care of himself and start a family of his own... and hopefully not get himself killed fighting monsters."

The next day, Shunshi, who was dressed in his hero costume, had found Saitama's small apartment building and thought to himself in a puzzled tone at the unimpressive status of his new teacher's home "Huh... I guess I expected something bigger for a S-Class' house... Well, whatever; maybe Saitama-Sensei just prefers smaller living conditions."

He, then, walked over to the of the stairs of the apartment complex and went up to the second floor, towards Saitama's home.

While walking up to the stairs, he noticed that Genos had gotten hear before him and was standing outside of Saitama's room.

Happy to see his 'robot buddy' again, Shunshi waved at Genos and said somewhat excitedly "Hey, Genos-Senpai! Good to see you!"

Hearing his name be called out, Genos turned to see Shunshi walking towards him

Clearly having little interest in conversing with Shunshi, Genos responded to the friendly greeting by emotionlessly saying "... Oh, I see that you came here as well. Hello... Shunshi, was it?"

Shunshi rubbed the back of his head and replied to Genos in a friendly tone "Yes, that's correct! Thank you for remembering. You know, I usually have trouble remembering peoples' names, but your's managed to stick with me."

Genos just looked at Shunshi for a moment with an emotionless stare, before replying with yet another emotionless sentence "I see." He, then, turned back to face Saitama's door, while also seeming to try to work up the courage for something.

After that awkward exchange, Shunshi thought to himself in a somewhat bothered tone "Man, Genos-Senpai sure is a weird guy."

The two of them continued standing outside of Saitama's room for a few more minutes. Shunshi hadn't said anything this whole time out of respect for his 'Senpai', but his patience eventually broke, causing him to ask Genos in a whisper "Are we waiting for something or-"

Without warning, Genos cut Shunshi off by suddenly shouting "Sensei!"

This sudden shout from the normally stoic Genos surprised Shunshi greatly, causing him to stagger backwards a couple steps.

After Shunshi recomposed himself, he and Genos continued to wait outside of Saitama's room for a moment.

They eventually heard a lock come undone from inside of the apartment and saw the door open up, with Saitama poking his shiny head out of it.

He was fully dressed in his superhero costume and he had an annoyed look on his face.

After taking a second to stare at the two young men that had come to him for training, Saitama asked the two of them in a mixture of annoyance and surprise "Oh, so you two actually came?"

Both Genos and Shunshi quickly stood at attention and replied in unison "Yes, Sensei!"

Saitama, somewhat annoyed by their response, asked the two younger heroes "Can you guys not call me Sensei?"

Upon hearing this, Genos stated in a correcting tone of voice "Master!"

Having been made no happier by this title, Saitama shouted at Genos, with his patience wearing thin by just a bit "Not that either!"

Afterwards, there was an awkward silence between the three of them.

Shunshi began to sweat nervously, because he kept expecting Saitama to ask Genos and himself about their Hero Association rank, but, much to his surprise and relief, Saitama never asked that question.

After a few more awkward seconds of silence, Saitama, reluctantly, chose to invite them both inside of his home.

Everyone took a seat a Saitama's coffee table and got settled down as he poured each of them a cup of tea.

Shunshi had taken off his gauntlets and helmet so that he could properly hold his cup and drink his tea.

Saitama, after sitting down, flatly said to Shunshi and Genos in an uninterested tone "Both of you just finish your tea and go home. I'm not looking for disciples."

Having been made very shocked and upset by Saitama's 'sudden change of mind', Shunshi, while looking in the ground in disappointment, humbly asked "Oh, I'm sorry... but maybe you could just tell us what you-"

Genos, having ignored that Shunshi was even talking, interrupted him by stating "But Sensei! I need to get stronger!"

Not really having given much attention to what either of them had said, Saitama instead was in stuck in his lazy thoughts as he looked at Genos and Shunshi for a moment.

After gaining a very confused look on his face, Saitama stated with minimal shock "Hey, wait a second. You guys are both back in one piece already. I thought that you two would be in the hospital or something for a little bit longer."

Shunshi, after gathering up some courage, explained how he had recovered so quickly to Saitama, albeit very nervously "Um... Well, one of my powers is that I... I heal at a faster rate than normal humans do. So... I'm already ready to go again."

Genos, then, gave his own explanation in a much more serious tone of voice "My body is mostly mechanical. As long as there are spare parts available, I'll be fully repaired in a matter of days."

Upon hearing the explanations of these two strange people, Saitama tilted his head and gained a puzzled look on his face while stating "You two are sure are odd ones."

Genos wasn't fazed by this comment, Shunshi, however, looked a little offended, but he quickly let it go.

Without a moment of hesitation, Genos asked Saitama with great curiosity in his voice "What kind of parts do you use, Sensei?"

Having been a little bit confused by Genos' question, Shunshi tried to hesitantly correct Genos "Um... he just told us that we're not his disciples. And he's clearly not a cyborg, Senpai..."

Glancing over at Shunshi, Genos replied to him by stating in an almost annoyed tone "But he must be a-"

Saitama, then, chimed in, in a very bored tone of voice "No. He's right. I Don't use any robot parts."

Even with Saitama's confirmation, Genos still looked a little confused, so he asked "Then what is that skinned-colored armor on your head?"

Shunshi was shocked that Genos actually asked such a blatantly insensitive question, while Saitama responded to him in an annoyed tone "Yeah, that's my skin."

Still having a little bit of doubt, Genos thought out loud in a concerned and confused tone "But that would mean you are bald, despite being so young."

Shunshi's jaw dropped so hard when Genos said this that, if he were still wearing his helmet, he would've smacked the jaw-piece of it with his chin.

Having lost his patience with the cyborg, Saitama replied to him in a very angry tone "So I'm bald- What's your problem!?"

After realizing Genos' social ineptitude, Shunshi thought to himself in a bit of a worried tone "Is Genos really going to be my Senpai?"

After Saitama's angry outburst, Genos, with a small bit of excitement in his voice, asked Saitama "Me? You will listen to my problems?"

Not sure of what to make of Genos now, Shunshi stated to him in a slightly less respectful tone than before "That's clearly not what Saitama-Sensei meant, Genos-Senpai." Saitama nodded his head in agreement and said in another bored voice "Yeah, he's right. I'm good."

Genos, then, started explaining his backstory to Saitama anyway.

Shunshi was, at first, starting to become a little annoyed with Genos' insistence, but he started becoming more interested when Genos actually started explaining his backstory in detail. He explained that four years ago he was a fifteen year old boy who lived with a slightly poor family, but his life was still a happy one do to how kind hearted his parents were.

On one unfortunate day, his family and his home town were destroyed by an insane cyborg going on a rampage. He tried to stop this man-made monster, but he was too weak to do anything about it at the time and had to watch as his family was killed in front of him.

After the insane cyborg had left, Genos' body was left heavily damaged and near death, but, fortunately, he was rescued by a scientist named Dr. Stench and, by his own request, he was transformed into a, as he put it, 'cyborg for justice'.

Ever since then, Genos had been spending his life hunting down this mad cyborg, and destroying any monsters and evil organizations that he happened to run into along the way, which ultimately led him to his near fatal confrontation with the Mosquito Girl.

At this point, Shunshi just felt bad for having been annoyed with Genos no more than just a few seconds ago.

Saitama, who also seemed to have gained sympathy for Genos, nodded his head and said "I see-"

Before he could continue with his sentence however, Genos continued with his story; he started stating obvious things, all of which were just basically 'I need to get stronger to fight the mad cyborg' but said in different ways.

Shunshi was just confused as to why Genos was still talking, but he respected Genos too much now to interrupt him, but Saitama, on the other hand, was clearly growing impatient once again.

When Genos started speaking in a continuously faster and faster tone of voice, while still stating the obvious, Saitama shouted at him in an extremely annoyed tone "ENOUGH, YOU IDIOT! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO TALK FOR SO LONG?! SHORTEN IT TO TWENTY WORDS OR LESS!"

After an awkward silence, Shunshi, clearly having become a little bit frightened, said to Saitama in a hesitant tone of voice "... I'm... I'm just a guy who wants to be strong enough to be a proper hero, Sensei."

Saitama looked at Shunshi for a second with a somewhat sympathetic stare, and then thought to himself in a happy tone "This guy is a lot like me when I first started out... Except... Why do I feel like I'm getting a bit of a childish vibe from him?"

Turning his head to face his other guest, Saitama asked Genos a bit more patiently "Okay, Genos. Have you shortened out what you want to say yet?"

Genos came out of deep thought and replied "Here's the short version, Sensei: Please teach me the way to become strong like you."

Having heard what these two are hear for, Saitama looked at them for a moment and, then, said in a very stoic tone of voice "Genos. Shunshi." They both replied instantly "Yes!?" Saitama, then, continued in his stoic tone "How old are you two?"

Genos replied attentively "Nineteen."

When he heard this, Shunshi thought in shock "He's nineteen?! He looks so much more younger then me than that... Well, I guess he was turned into a cyborg back when he was only fifteen..."

Saitama looked at Shunshi and said in a curious tone "Shunshi, you didn't give me an answer yet... Don't you know how old you are?"

His face having grown red, Shunshi replied in a slightly embarrassed and surprised tone "Oh, sorry! I'm twenty years old, Sensei."

Saitama, then, put his hand on his chin and said in an almost concerned tone "You're both so young... I'm sure the two of you will surpass me in no time."

Completely taken back by the bald hero's statement, Shunshi asked Saitama in surprise "Wait! Really?!" Genos asked in equal surprise "Do you mean that?!"

Saitama replied to the both of them with a proud smile "I'm twenty five now, but I was twenty two when I started training in the summer." Both Shunshi and Genos gained looks of surprise when they heard this.

Almost unable to believe this, Shunshi thought to himself in utter bewilderment "Saitama-Sensei has only been training for three years like me?!... His training must be thousands of times harder then what I've been doing!"

His face having shifted to a much more serious one, Saitama declared "Sure, I'll teach you guys. But it won't be easy. It'll push you to the point that you may even want to die. Do you guys think you can handle it?"

While nodding his head, Genos replied confidently "Yes, sir!"

Slamming his hand onto the coffee table in excitement, Shunshi replied "I'll do anything it takes to get the strength needed to be a proper hero, Master!"

All of a sudden, and without warning, Genos's yellow irises started flashing, he got onto his hands and one knee, before stating "Object approaching at high speed- It's here!"

Before either Saitama or Shunshi could ask Genos what he was talking about, a monster that looked like somewhat of a cross between a Human and a prey-mantis smashed through the wall of Saitama's apartment.

Shunshi quickly began to put his helmet and gauntlets back on, but, by the time he had gotten even one of them back on, Saitama had already punched the creature's head off while stating in a passive aggressive tone "Pay for my wall!"

At first, Shunshi looked surprised by how easily Saitama beat this creature, but then thought to himself in hesitant acceptance "Well, he is a S-Class hero, after all."

Genos, then, turned to face the hole in the wall while stating coldly "There are two more outside. Master, leave them to your students. Follow me Shunshi!"

Genos swiftly jumped out of the hole in the wall of Saitama's home, quickly followed by Shunshi, but, when they landed on the ground, Saitama had already planted a frog creature and a slug creature face-first into the ground.

Despite how insanely fast Saitama had just moved, Genos simply reacted to this with an unphased voice "Oh, never mind."

Shunshi, being completely overcome with admiration at Saitama's display of speed, stated in admiration "Oh my God! You're ridiculously fast, Sensei."

Not really giving any thought to his new students' comments, Saitama looked at the two monsters he had put into the ground and asked them in annoyance "Can't you guys just come through the door?"

A pair of clawed hands, then, suddenly popped out of the ground, grabbed Saitama by his ankles and pulled him underground, all the way up to his neck.

When they saw this, both Genos and Shunshi shouted in concern for Saitama "Master!" But, before they could try to go and help him, he eased their worries by saying in a reassuring tone of voice "No, I'm fine. Being underground feels kind of nice actually. It's warm and cool at the same time. I feel like a bamboo shoot growing through the pavement. Maybe I'll take a nap."

Being understandably taken back by Saitama's calm attitude in such a dangerous situation, Genos and Shunshi were frozen in place; that is until they heard a mechanical voice saying something inaudible, before some sort of robotic guerrilla busted through the wall that was next to them.

Upon seeing this creature, Shunshi took a step back from it, while Genos, unphased by the monster's presence, asked himself in, what sounded like, a mixture of hope and anger "A cyborg?!"

He, then, thought to himself in a tone of total fury "Could it be?!..."

Saitama, while trying to look behind himself due to the fact he had been facing the other way when he was pulled underground, asked Genos and Shunshi "Huh, what's going on? I can't see."

Not wasting a moment, the cyborg guerrilla threw a punch at Shunshi and Genos. Shunshi was able to dodged the attack, but was then hit in his chest by some of the debris that was sent flying because of the guerrilla's punch. Genos, however, manged to maneuver around the attack and quickly spin-kicked the guerrilla in its head.

While getting back on his feet from the piece of asphalt hitting him, Shunshi asked Genos in concern "Do you need any help, Senpai?!"

Not wanting any disturbances with this, Genos quickly replied "No." And then ran at the guerrilla.

The two cyborgs collided arms, and Genos then said to his opponent with cold fury "I have a few questions for you."

While Genos struggled with the guerrilla, Shunshi looked over at the two monsters that were stuck in the ground, walked over to them, pulled them out of the ground by their ankles and asked them in a threatening tone of voice, as he had them upside down in the air "Why are you idiots attacking Master Saitama's home?!"

Before either of them could give him an answer, Shunshi saw a giant lion/Human hybrid walk up to Saitama, as he was still embedded in the ground. It then started to laugh arrogantly at the trapped hero.

The lion creature, with sadistic glee, said to Saitama "Looks like you're in what they call a 'tight spot'. Good work, Ground Dragon!"

The mole creature that had pulled Saitama underground popped out of the ground a few feet away from the fighting when this lion creature complimented him, and replied in a disturbingly calm tone of voice "Well, it complicates things if they put up a fight."

Realizing that more enemies had arrived, Genos turned his head in concern for Saitama, but he was almost too late in realizing why this was a mistake when the Guerrilla stated to him in its mechanical voice "You shouldn't turn away!" It then threw a punch at him, which he deflected.

Taking advantage of the fact that he was still in close proximity to his enemy, Genos thrusted his other hand at the guerrilla and fired off a massive explosion of flame, which engulfed the entire street in front of him in fire.

Shunshi was sure that Genos had just won his fight, but, much to his shock, he was proved wrong when the guerrilla just jumped out of the inferno without a single injury to be seen. It, then, tried to attack Genos by jumping on him, but he easily dodged this by jumping out of the way, causing the guerrilla to hit the ground instead and destroy the street in a title wave of concrete.

While walking out of the crater it had created, the guerrilla stated in its emotionless robot voice "I am the pinnacle of the House of Evolution's science. I am Armored Guerrilla. Your attacks have no effect on me."

Responding to this information, Genos asked Armored Guerrilla in a mixture of anger and confusion "The House of Evolution? What's that? And what does it want with my master?"

Uninterested with Genos' questions, Armored Guerrilla just replied to him with his robotic voice while walking forward "That is none of your business. It is our rule that anyone who interferes with us must be eliminated without fail. I must destroy you."

Feeling a little overwhelmed by the amount of enemies that were attacking them, Shunshi decided to take a second to quickly examine all of the monsters that had shown up.

Thinking in a calculating tone, Shunshi came to this conclusion: "This 'Armored Guerrilla' and that lion thing are probably both Demon Level threats; and that Ground Dragon thing might be a Tiger Level threat."

He, then, glared down at the two terrified monsters that he was still holding in the air by their ankles and thought in a disgusted tone "These two are, without question, just average Wolf Level threats..." Shunshi, then, looked back over at Ground Dragon just as that lion thing was trying to intimidate Saitama putting his massive claws just inches away from the bald hero's eyes.

Shunshi, without warning, threw the two wolfs at Ground Dragon, knocking him out of his hole and onto his back with the other two monsters lying on top of him.

Choosing to leave the handling of the lion creature to Saitama, Shunshi just calmly started walking past the large beast, while heading for the pile of weaker monsters, hoping that the demon wouldn't pay him much attention.

The lion thing, not understanding that Shunshi had no intention of fighting him, angrily asked the hero-in-training "You think you can get the drop on the Beast King so easily, punk!? Take this!"

He, then, thrusted one of his claws at a scared Shunshi, causing him to raise one of his arms in a desperate attempt at defence, but, before the attack could hit the darkly clad man, Saitama exploded out of the ground, appeared in front of Shunshi and effortlessly pushed Beast King's hand.

While picking away some dirt that was in his ear, Saitama stated in a very bored tone to the lion monster "Hey, he wasn't trying to attack you, moron. He's fighting your buddies. I'll take you on. Just try not to boor me too much, okay?"

Saitama, then, jumped over the now furious Beast King and prompted him to try his luck at attacking this unimpressive looking, yellow costumed man. Beast King's response was to suddenly grow more muscular and shout savagely "I'll claw your eyes out!" He, then, started slashing at Saitama with speeds that were far too fast for Shunshi's eyes to keep up with, destroying entire buildings with each slash.

While sweating with fear under his helmet, Shunshi thought to himself in shock as he watched the Beast King unleash his attacks "Probably for the best that Sensei is the one taking him on..."

Having regained consciousness, Ground Dragon pushed the frog and slug creatures off of himself in frustration. While getting back up, he saw that Beast King was obviously trying to kill Saitama.

Worried about their master losing a specimen, Ground Dragon shouted at the lion creature in a hesitant tone "Don't kill him, Beast King! We still need to bring him back alive!"

Shunshi, while Ground Dragon was looking away, very quickly clawed at the monster's face, causing a large amount of blood to cover his gauntlet, before saying coldly "I think you should be a bit more worried about how you're gonna keep yourself in one piece, rather than my Master."

Seeing that Ground Dragon was in trouble, the frog creature quickly stood back up, took out a sword and tried to attack Shunshi from behind, but Shunshi, now covered in white flames, quickly turned around and smacked the frog creature across the face with his balled up fist, knocking him into a nearby road support pillar, cracking it in the process.

Ground Dragon, now covered in his own blood, exploded out from the ground below Shunshi and tried to slash at his chest, but the would be hero easily jumped backwards and dodged the monster's attack, before he spun around and kneed Ground Dragon in his head, sending him flying at the frog and damaging the road support pillar even further.

Shunshi, while raising his blood and white flame covered fist into the air, stated confidently "I've beaten monsters several times stronger than all three of you put together! You can't win against me!"

All of a sudden, Shunshi started having the single most painful headache of his entire life. While trying to find out why this was happening, he looked over at the now conscious slug creature, who's eyes were glowing an odd blue color.

The slug creature said with a sadistic smile "Strength isn't the only way to win a fight!"

Before Shunshi could do anything in response to this, both Ground Dragon and the frog attacked him.

Ground Dragon slammed two boulders that were both almost twice the size of Shunshi's head into the sides of his skull with such strength that they turned into pebbles and caused a small cloud of dirt to form.

Taking advantage of the cloud of dirt and the slug-man's headache attack, the frog swiftly thrusted his sword at Shunshi's chest.

The slug, assuming that the dark armored obstruction in their plan had been dealt with, thought to himself with a grin "That's what happens when you cross the House of Evolution!"

A split second later, the dirt cloud around Shunshi cleared up, showing that the frog's sword broke against his armor and that, aside from his hood being a little torn up, Shunshi was completely unphased by Ground Dragon's attack.

The slug stopped his headache wave for a second and stated in panic "That's not possible! A Human can't handle that kind of punishment."

Instantly realizing that the unbearable headache was gone, Shunshi quickly turned around and fired one of his light balls at the slug, blowing its head clean off.

He, then, turned back to face his other enemies and thrusted his clawed fingers through the frog man's chest, killing him, all while thinking to himself with a proud smile underneath his helmet "That's two more dead Wolves to my name."

Before his last opponent had a chance to try and attack him again, Shunshi quickly grabbed Ground Dragon by his throat, rushed over to the same road support pillar from before and pinned him against it.

Shunshi, while still covering himself in white fire, asked Ground Dragon in a very threatening tone "Okay, I guess I'll try asking YOU this time! Why the Hell are you shit heads attacking my Master's home?!"

Being too proud to give into threats like this, Ground Dragon just glared at Shunshi and thought to himself while sweating nervously "I Just have to keep him talking until Beast King beats down the new specimen."

Just as he said that, Saitama, who had been effortlessly dodging all of the Beast King's attacks up until now, emotionlessly stated "Consecutive normal punches." He, then, threw a flurry of casual punches at Beast King, destroying everything on his body from the waist up.

Horrified by what he had just seen, Ground Dragon shouted in disbelief "You gotta be shitting mmeeeeee!"

Saitama, then, turned his head to face the pinned Ground Dragon, while wearing an annoyed and threatening look on his face. Much to the mole monster's dismay, Saitama started walking towards him.

In fear of Saitama, Ground Dragon quickly thrusted his claws through the support pillar behind himself, collapsing it; and since Shunshi was using his weight to keep Ground Dragon pinned against the structure, he fell over and lost his grip on the mole creature.

As soon as he made contact with the street, Ground Dragon quickly started digging through the earth at an unbelievable pace.

As he fell to his knees, Shunshi realized that his enemy had gotten away and thought to himself in an annoyed tone "Dammit!"

He, then, stood up and turned to face Saitama, before saying to him with an ashamed tone of voice "I'm so sorry, Sensei. I was sloppy and he got-"

Shunshi stopped talking when he noticed that, in place of where his master was once standing, was now just a hole.

Thinking to himself in amazed confusion, Shunshi asked "Did Sensei actually just-" Before he could even finish that thought, Saitama exploded out of the ground, with Ground Dragon's blood on his fist.

All Shunshi was able to say in this situation was "Holly crap! You're awesome, Sensei!"

Hearing this, Saitama gave Shunshi an uncomfortable look and said "You don't need to praise me like that."

Being curious and somewhat concerned for his safety, Saitama and Shunshi both turned to see if Genos had won his fight as well.

What they wound up seeing was Genos, with one of his hands pointed at a heavily damaged Armored Guerrilla, getting another of his fire blasts ready.

The Armored Guerrilla had lost both of his arms, as well as the helmet around his head.

The two cyborgs were standing next to a destroyed street and a pile of ash in the shape of a tree.

As Saitama and Shunshi walked over to Genos, they heard him say to Armored Guerrilla in an impatient tone "Answer the question or be eliminated. It is Your choice."

Not one to be intimidated so easily, Armored Guerrilla replied to the young cyborg's threat with his standard, emotionless, mechanical voice "It is you who will be eliminated. I am only the third most powerful fighter in the House of Evolution. At your power, you stand no chance against our number two; the Beast King. You will be destroyed."

Hearing what this weird monkey guy said, Saitama held up the Beast King's eyeball and asked Armored Guerrilla "You mean this guy?"

While gleefully grinning, Shunshi stated with child-like proudness to Genos "That's all that's left of the lion guy after Sensei was done with him!" Hearing this, Genos metaphorically asked "Is that so?"

All three of them, then, glared at Armored Guerrilla.

He just glared back at them for a moment with his still mechanical looking face, but, not wanting to die, his facade gave out as his face shifted into a much more organic look.

Now speaking in a normal, but clearly fearful voice, Armored Guerrilla said to Saitama and his students "look. I'm really sorry. I'll tell you everything, just don't kill me!"

Shunshi was completely caught off guard by this sudden change in demeanor from the guerrilla cyborg and asked no one "What the heck?!"

Being almost as puzzled as the older of his two students, Saitama asked the guerrilla in bored confusion "What the- What happened to your robot voice?" Armored Guerrilla replied to this by saying meekly "Sorry. I was just trying to sound cool!"

Shunshi tilted his head in a mixture of surprise and confusion at this explanation, while even the stone cold Genos cocked an eyebrow.

After a moment of awkward silence between the four of them, Armored Guerrilla said in a polite tone "I'll suppose I'll start from the beginning."

Clearing his throat, Armored Guerrilla started telling a fairly compelling story about a scientist named Doctor Genus. Apparently he was a child prodigy in the field of biology and became a part of the scientific community while he was still in the middle of his teenage years. The downside to his brilliance was that all of his ideas never received any support from any other scientists, because they were seen as being too dangerous.

Deciding that all the other members of the Human race were just cowardly animals compared to him and that he didn't need their help, he spent his entire life working alone on his research. At the age of seventy, he finally started to see results. He used his new found genetic techniques to restore his youth, he then made many clones of himself and started something he called the 'House of Evolution' with the goal of creating a new breed of Humanity. Genus' first experiments were on animals, but he soon shifted his focus to Human subjects.

Shunshi was actually getting really interested in this story at this point, but, much to his surprise, Saitama shouted angrily "Shut up! Just get to the part that concerns me!" Genos reinforced this by stating in a threatening manner "Our master is a very busy man! Shorten it to twenty words or less!"

Looking at his two superiors awkwardly, Shunshi halfheartedly shouted "I, uh... Yeah!"

Armored Guerrilla looked back and forth between the two angry members of his captors before replying fearfully "... I- I'm sorry."

He took a couple minutes to think up how to summarize what he should say.

Eventually, Armored Guerrilla, in a fear-filled, anxious tone, said "So, basically my boss has become very interested in the bald o- er- your master's body."

Shaking his head at this, Saitama stated nonchalantly "I don't swing that way."

Saitama's response forced Shunshi to have to hold back a giggle.

Genos replied to Saitama in order to correct him "I think you misunderstood, Master. He plans to use your body, which surpasses normal Human limitations for research in his experiments on artificial evolution."

After hearing Genos say this, Shunshi stated with clear resolve and enthusiasm in his voice "Well then, we gotta do something about it! These guys will just keep coming after Saitama-Sensei if we don't!"

Genos, who had the smallest hint of annoyance in his eye, turned to look at Shunshi while saying in agreement "... You are correct, we must take action."

Saitama, having become a little intrigued by all of this, responded to Genos and Shunshi "Sure, guys. Let's go." He, then, started walking away.

Shunshi and Genos, both of whom were confused as to why Saitama was in such a hurry, even though they had all just finished a serious battle, simultaneously asked him "Wait, we're going right now?"

In response to their question, Saitama pulled a flyer out from his belt and said with a small smile "Yeah, we need to handle this quickly. There's a sale on vegetables tomorrow, can't do it then."

Shunshi, after failing to process what his unbelievably powerful teacher had just said, shook his head, decided to toss away his concern that a S-Class hero was taking a vegetable sale into consideration, and quickly started following after Saitama.

Having some more questions of his own, Genos stayed and interrogated Armored Guerrilla further about the House of Evolution's cyborg constructions. After finding out that Armored Guerrilla was their only combat cyborg, Genos let out a frustrated sigh, before leaving and quickly catching up to Saitama and Shunshi.

A little over an hour later, the three heroes had been running for miles and, eventually, came across some woods.

Noticeably starting to run short on breath, Shunshi had to use everything he had in order to keep up with Genos and Saitama, although, despite his obvious fatigue, neither of them took notice of this.

After Saitama stepped on a wild bear that tried to get in the group's way, Genos commented in surprise "I did not think we would be running the whole way there."

Misunderstanding his Senpai's comment, Shunshi asked "What are you talking about? We're all faster on foot than we'd be if we took a car or something."

This also prompted Saitama to ask his cyborg disciple "How else did you think we would get there?"

Genos replied in a matter of fact tone "I assumed that you could fly, Sensei."

Not understanding that Genos had simply overestimated the amount of powers he had, Saitama replied to him by hesitantly asking "... You're aware that humans can't fly, right?"

having become even more impressed by Saitama, Genos responded to him in admiration "In that case, it is amazing that you are never late. You are a true hero."

Hearing Genos say this, Shunshi realized just how much he agreed with him by thinking "Wow... Saitama-Sensei really is something else" As he was saying this, he was also looking at Saitama just as a ray of sunlight came down through the leaves and highlighted the wonderful hero in all of his glory.

After all that, just as the three of them jumped over a mountain, Saitama commented on Genos' praise of him "Actually, I hardly ever arrive on time."

Stunned by this, Shunshi almost failed to make the jump.

The three of them, after clearing the jump over the mountain, came across a large metal building that was eight stories tall.

Less than a minute after they had landed and finished examining the building, Genos, without a second of warning, fired off a huge wave of fire, turning the entire structure, as well as over three dozen feet of mountainside, to ash and ruble.

Saitama, having been genuinely surprised by Genos' actions, asked him "What was that all about? "

Seeing nothing wrong with what he had done, Genos replied in a bit of confusion "I found this to be the best way to deal with the enemy as efficiently as possible."

Due to having wanted to see if these guys could give him any challenge, Saitama replied with disappointment in his voice "Well, that's true, but-"

All of a sudden, Shunshi cut off Saitama by shouting at Genos in a horrified and angry tone of voice "Senpai! What the Hell is wrong with you!?"

Genuinely surprised by this sudden outburst from his junior, Genos replied with startled confusion in his voice "What's wrong? If you are upset at not getting to fight, I believe that I already explained why took my-"

Cutting Genos off once again, Shunshi stated in a mixture of anger and shock "Don't you get it, Senpai?! What if there were Humans being kept prisoner in there for that Genus guy's experiments!? If so, then you just murdered them! We should've tried to save them!"

After Shunshi finished his rant, Genos gained a look of genuine shock and regret before saying quietly "I... I never even considered that..."

Not wanting to dwell on such a depressing subject like this, Saitama gave a small smile to both of them and said "If what we heard about this place is true from that guerrilla guy is true, then any people that might've been in here were already turned into freakish monsters. We couldn't save them at that point and, if I were in their shoes, I would've wanted to be dead anyway."

Genos was clearly having a hard time with coming to terms with the idea that he might have killed innocent people, but he eventually let his Sensei's words comfort him. However, Shunshi was having a much harder time excepting that they couldn't have saved any people that may have been in the building.

After Saitama gave him a look of slight sympathy for another minute or so, Shunshi took a deep breath and hesitantly said "... If you say so, Sensei."

Wanting to at least make sure that the enemy had been dealt with, the three of them decided to take a quick look around the burnt remains of the House of Evolution. Saitama quickly found a hatch made of, what looked like, reinforced titanium.

He, then, ripped the hatch's door out of the ground like it was made of cardboard while commenting "Looks like there's a basement."

Genos and Shunshi, after exchanging serious glances with each other, backed up their Master and walked into what was left of the House of Evolution. And, while they were doing this, Saitama decided to pick his nose.

After they had been walking down a large hallway for about twelve minutes or more, some sort of extremely large, brownish-grey beetle/Human creature was rushing down the hallway towards the three of them, while carrying a beaten up young man who was wearing glasses in one of his massive hands.

While continuing to run at full speed, the beetle creature, in an excited tone, asked the young man that he was carrying "So which one is it?" While cringing in pain, the young man replied to the monster "The bald one in the middle."

Realizing the hostile intentions of this monster, Shunshi got ready to fight while thinking confidently "I bet Master could already beat something like this on his own, but with me and Genos by his side, there's no-"

Before he could finish his thought, the monster slammed both he and Genos into parallel walls while saying sadistically "Then I guess we won't need these two!"

Saitama looked at both sides of himself while asking with some real concern in his voice "Genos!? Shunshi!? Are you two alright?!"

The monster, uninterested with the bald hero's concerns, said to Saitama while wearing a sadistic smile "I am Kabuto! I'm the strongest weapon that the House of Evolution has to offer! Follow me to the fighting arena so that we can kill each other!"

Saitama, actually looking a little bit angry, replied to Kabuto "You'll pay for making Genos and Shunshi look like bad modern art! Lead the way!"

Kabuto led Saitama to a large white room and asked him rhetorically as they walked onto parallel sides of the room "Pretty big, eh? It's the biggest room in the entire facility! This is where all new experiments test out their combat capabilities against each other! Now... time to start the killing!"

However, before either he or Saitama could begin attacking each other, Genos and Shunshi showed up, with Genos firing a wave of fire at Kabuto.

Despite being left unphased by the attack, Kabuto turned to look at the two injured warriors that had come to fight him and asked excitedly "Oh. So the two flies are still alive?"

Genos, who had been leaning against a wall, suddenly started moving at incredible speeds towards the abomination of science called Kabuto, while Shunshi, who's hood had been torn off, started preparing to fire a large light ball.

Genos quickly closed the gap in distance between himself and Kabuto, kicked him in his head, and then darted away. After getting a sufficient amount of distance between himself and his enemy, Genos started moving in a circle around Kabuto while shooting off rays of fire at him as fast as he could.

The blonde haired cyborg, then, jumped into the air above Kabuto, resulting in the beetle monster commenting "You fool!"

The furious cyborg, as his yellow eyes began to glow violently, unleashed a flurry of punches, while shouting with passionate anger "MACHINE GUN BLOW!"

After this assault, Kabuto, having been completely unscathed by all of the attacks, punched Genos in his artificial face hard enough to smash off half of it in the process, revealing the robotics underneath the fake skin. The force of this punch was so strong that it sent Genos flying across the room, but, fortunately for him, he was caught by Saitama.

Saitama, with a small amount of genuine concern in his voice, asked Genos "Hey, you okay, man?"

Ignoring the damage that had been done to himself, Genos just stated stubbornly "Just leave him to me, Sensei!"

Not wanting Genos to get himself killed, Saitama calmly said to him "Don't push yourself. Your face is cracked and you're all smashed up."

Ignoring his Master's concerns and despite having been laid down on his back, Genos fired off one more massive ray of fire at Kabuto, a ray that was just as powerful as the one that he used to destroy the House of Evolution building earlier. However, instead of being afraid of the destructive flames heading for him, Kabuto just smiled insanely and breathed a tornado out of his mouth, knocking Genos's attack right back at him, resulting in a look of fear, shock and confusion forming on Genos' face.

After the fire had passed by the two of them, Saitama asked Genos with a bit more concern than before "Genos! You okay?" Not wanting to give up, Genos replied weakly "Yes... Master... I'm fine..."

Not believing this for a second, Saitama lightly tugged on Genos's now frilled hair and said in an accusing tone "Don't lie! Just look at your head!"

Shunshi, who had been charging up his light ball this entire time, rushed into the room, jumped in between Kabuto and his Sensei and Senpai, while shouting angrily "Eat this, you freak! My strongest attack; MINIATURE WHITE SUN!"

He, then, fired off a light ball that was as big as he was. (He's 6'1)

Kabuto, again without a hint of fear, replied to Shunshi in a gleeful tone as the attack came his way "Gladly!" He, then, opened up his jaw to an inhuman size and, just as the attack was about to hit him, he put the light ball inside of his mouth.

Unable to believe what he'd just seen, Shunshi shouted in angry disbelief "You've gotta be kidding me!"

Just as the explosion went off in his mouth, Kabuto unhinged his jaw, allowing the explosive force to travel in a sort of wave that hit Shunshi dead on, knocking off his helmet, tearing off some of his costume, breaking several bones in his body, and ripping away some of his flesh.

This feat of power from Kabuto caused Shunshi to think to himself in despair as he was sent flying through the air "This guy must be another Demon Level... No, this thing must be a Dragon Level threat..."

Shunshi was sent flying over Saitama's head, but the bald hero grabbed onto Shunshi's cape before he went too far and set him down next to Genos.

Saitama, after he had put both of his would be students on the ground to rest, said to his two disciples with a mixture of concern and annoyance "Just let me handle this freak, guys."

Kabuto heard Saitama say this and asked him in a tone that combined sarcasm and excitement "Handel me?!" He, then, laughed and stuck out his tong while spinning it in a circle at Saitama.

While looking at Kabuto with a mix of anger and hopefulness, Saitama commented "Now you've gone and gotten my hopes up!"

Just as Saitama said this, Shunshi noticed the young man that Kabuto was carrying earlier, stumbling to the edge of the room while smiling in a peculiar way.

Having put two and two together, Shunshi thought to himself in a hostile tone while glaring at this man "I guess this guy must be the good Dr. Genus."

Saitama started walking towards Kabuto, resulting in the large monster pointing both of his index fingers at him and saying "I see. I see! You're supposed to be really strong!"

Unconcerned with Kabuto's comments, Saitama just said coldly "Don't disappoint me!" This caused confusion in the monster of the House of Evolution.

Noticing the confusion on Kabuto's face, Saitama explained in a matter of fact tone "You're supposed to be the strongest weapon in this place, so, with all of that confidence oozing off of you, you'd better put up a good fight."

Kabuto smiled at this, disappeared and then reappeared behind Saitama, ready to punch him, prompting looks of worry from both Genos and Shunshi; and a look of joy from Dr. Genus. But, to everyone's surprise, Kabuto suddenly gained a look of fear on his face before he backed off; he, then, unfolded his wings and quickly flew to the other side of the room.

Unsure as to why his opponent retreated, Saitama asked Kabuto in confusion "Hey, what are you doing?"

Seemingly haven been frozen, Kabuto just stayed on the other side of the room for a moment, a moment in which he looked terrified.

Eventually deciding to voice his fears, Kabuto shouted angrily at Saitama "YOU BASTARD! How in the Hell did you get so strong!?"

Saitama just looked at Kabuto for a moment, before getting a more serious expression on his face and asking the monster "So, you wanna know too? Fine then, I'll tell you. Genos, Shunshi! You two listen up as well!"

Realizing what their Master was about to say, both Genos and Shunshi looked extremely surprised.

Unsure of how he should feel in this situation, Genos thought to himself in a mixture of eagerness and surprise "He's going to tell us right now? The secret to master's power..."

His pupils having almost fully dilated, Shunshi thought to himself in a mixture of fear and eagerness "The training regiment of an S-Class hero... I'm gonna learn the secret... Will my body even be able to handle that level of training; even after I know what to do?"

Dr. Genus, then, walked into the room and said to Saitama, while gripping his arm in pain "I would like to know too."

Saitama saw this injured man and, having no idea where he came from, asked him "Who are you?"

He replied while stumbling forward "I am Genus."

Saitama looked confused for a minute, but then said dismissively "Whatever, just listen up. The most important part is to stick to this training regiment, no matter what!"

Genus and Kabuto were both surprised by what Saitama had just said; the fact that he got this strong through training, causing them both to think "Training?! Not artificial enhancements, not some kind of super drug?! Just training?!"

Saitama, having now composed himself in a more serious way than either Genos or Shunshi had seen from him thus far, dramatically exclaimed "Listen, Genos, Shunshi; you have to keep doing it, every day, no matter how difficult it gets. It took me a full three years to get this strong... 100 PUSH-UPS! 100 SIT-UPS! 100 SQUATS! AND A 10 KILOMETER RUN! EVERY! SINGLE! DAY! And, of course, make sure you eat three meals daily; just a banana in the morning is fine. But never EVER use the air conditioner in the summer or heat in the winter, so you can strengthen the mind... I the beginning, you'll wish you were dead. You might start thinking 'What's the harm in taking a day off?' But for me, in order to be a strong hero, even if I was spitting blood, I never stopped! I toughed it out and endured the pain. I did squats even when my legs felt like they couldn't move! Even when my arms started making weird clicking noises, I kept doing push-ups. A year and a half later, I started to notice a difference: I was bald and I had become stronger! In other words: you gotta train like Hell, to the point where your hair falls out. That's the only way to become truly strong. The guys who are fooling around with this 'new Human race' and evolution junk, they're never gonna make it this far. I'm this strong because we Human beings have the power make ourselves' stronger!

Everyone present was confused that this was all the hyper powerful Saitama did for his training.

Eventually, Genos angrily blurted out "Sensei, you are so... full of crap! That is nothing but standard strength training! It is not even all that intense for a superhero!"

Saitama, having nearly died from this training regiment, just looked confused by Genos' statement.

Shunshi, with clear sadness in his voice, asked Saitama "You're... you're just joking, right, Saitama-Sensei? I've been training for three years as well, and my training regiment is dozens of times harder than that."

Having grown even more upset, Genos sated angrily at Saitama "I didn't come to you for jokes!"

After taking a second to think this over, Saitama, with a contemplated look on his face, said to Genos and Shunshi in a confused and worried tone of voice "Look, guys, I don't know what to say. You may not believe me, but that's really all I did."

The clear sincerity of Saitama's voice just confused Genos and Shunshi even further.

Kabuto, unable to believe Saitama's explanation, stated in an enraged tone "Fine! Don't tell me! I'll just kill you with my full power and secure my place on top of the world!"

Horrified by what his creation just said, Dr. Genus said to Kabuto in a pleading tone "No, Kabuto! Don't turn on Carnage mode! You'll go on another rampage!"

Kabuto, then, started to grow even bigger than he already was, as red flashing lights and warning sirens went off in the combat room, and four titanium doors, each of which being several feet thick, closed around the entrance of the room. Pieces of Kabuto's armor like skin fell off of his body, his horn doubled in size and became razor sharp, and his skin changed from brownish-grey to purple with green lines. Finally, his eyes changed to a completely glowing red color, while all of his teeth turned razer sharp.

At the sight of this monstrous transformation, Shunshi thought in despair "Oh God... The full power of a Dragon Level threat... I know you're joking about how you trained... But please, PLEASE be stronger than this monster, Sensei!"

After finishing his transformation, Kabuto shouted ferociously at Saitama "Face the power of my Carnage Mode! While I'm like this, you will call me Carnage Kabuto!"

All of a sudden, the entire room changed to what looked like a bottomless, black pit made from red lined blocks.

Carnage Kabuto, then, stated to Saitama with blood lust in his voice "When I'm like this, my lust for death can't be quelled and I loose all control! I'll be like this for an entire week! Once I kill you, I'll go into the cities and start destroying them until next Saturday! If you're really a hero, then try and stop me!"

When he heard Kabuto say this, Saitama gained a look of despair and fear on his face.

Suddenly, Carnage Kabuto disappeared and reappeared in front of Saitama, sending him flying with a punch from his massive fist. He, then, caught up with his victim and unleashed a flurry of punches on him, while chanting "Death death death death death death death!"

This pattern of Saitama getting knocked around the room like a rag doll continued on for a while, causing Genos and Shunshi to both loose hope that they would get out of here alive.

Eventually, after having grown more and more tense, Saitama threw a punch back at Cabuto and destroyed his entire body, while shouting in an angry and horrified tone "I MESSED UP! Today was the big sale!"

This sudden turn around shocked everyone in the room beyond belief.

As Saitama was screaming about missing the vegetable sale at the supermarket, Shunshi looked at Carnage Kabuto's remains and, after fully realizing what had just happened, he thought in hesitant acceptance "Maybe I should try adding Master's training regiment to my own and see where that gets me..."

Saitama had now fallen to his knees and was shouting in misery as he grabbed at his head "I messed up!"

Not fully able to accept what he had just seen, Dr. Genus asked in a very confused tone "...What just happened?!"

Hearing this question, Genos walked up to Dr. Genus, took out the flyer for the big sale for vegetables at the supermarket and said almost emotionlessly "I think our Master is upset about this."

He, then, ran over to Saitama, who was being comforted by Shunshi, and said in a hurrying tone "Master! The sale still lasts for a few hours! If we all hurry, then we can make it in time!"

Hearing this snapped Saitama out of his stupor and caused him to ask in a combination of joy and surprise "SERIOUSLY!? Then let's go!"

Genos and Shunshi both responded to this by saying very attentively "Yes, Sensei!"

Saitama, then, ran up to the wall of the House of Evolution and punched a hole through the mountain that it was inside of in order for Shunshi, Genos and himself to exit through.

Dr. Genus, after the bald hero for fun that ruined his life's work had left, thought in despair as snot drooled from his nose "I think I'm done with evolution..."


	3. Chapter 3: The Heroes

Five days after the events involving, Saitama, his 'students' and The House Of Evolution: Shunshi was at Saitama's home; he was dressed in just his regular street cloths instead of his hero costume this time; said hero outfit was inside of the backpack that he had brought with him.

Shunshi was doing one handed push ups with little effort, while Saitama was reading a manga and occasionally glancing over at him with a look of confusion and annoyance on his face.

"Why does he have to work-out at my place?... Well, I guess it's a bit of an improvement from how he was yesterday... Just a little bit though." Thought Saitama in an annoyed tone.

Flash back to yesterday afternoon. Shunshi had arrived at Saitama's home, fully dressed in his full hero armor.

While standing at attention at the doorway, Shunshi asked his 'teacher' "Good afternoon, Saitama-Sensei. May I please come in?" Saitama, who was dressed in casual wear, just gave him a hesitant look, before stepping aside and gesturing for Shunshi to come in.

After Shunshi had entered Saitama's home, the owner of the home asked his admirer in a mixture of curiousness and boredom "So what's up; any reason you felt like visiting today?" While beginning to stretch out his arms, Shunshi replied with attentive excitement in his voice "I came over to do my daily training, Saitama-Sensei!"

Not fully understanding what Shunshi meant, Saitama quickly looked him over and asked in a bored yet confused tone "Why are you wearing that outfit of your's if you just stopped by to visit?" Stopping his stretches for a second, Shunshi replied with hesitance in his voice "... You're a superhero yourself, Master. Aren't I supposed to be dressed in my own superhero costume if I come over to your home?"

Becoming minimally flabbergasted by Shunshi's attempted explanation, Saitama stated with bored emotionlessness "Don't be stupid. If I wore my costume all the time, then it would start to stink."

Shunshi was surprised by his powerful master's words of wisdom and, after recomposing himself, stated attentively while bowing to him "Thank you for that lesson, Sensei!"

After hearing this, Saitama just stared at Shunshi while cocking his eyebrow and thinking in confusion "What the Hell is he talking about? What lesson?"

Shunshi stood up straight, energetically walked over to Saitama's door and, as he was leaving, he said to Saitama in a respectful tone "I won't waste anymore of your time today, Master. I'll come back tomorrow with proper clothing."

Saitama just watched in slight surprised bewilderment at the young man who had shown up at his house just to leave after only a few minutes of confusing dialogue. Saitama looked out of his window to see Shunshi as he walked down the street. He, then, asked himself with a slight hint of worry in his voice "How did I wined up in this position?..."

Back in the present; Shunshi had just finished doing 1,200 single armed push ups for both of his arms; he, then, got on his hands and knees and thought doubtfully to himself "Alright... time for Saitama-Sensei's workouts. Let's start with 100 regular push ups and move on from there." Shunshi quickly blew through all of these exercises, feeling little to no fatigue from them at all.

After he had finished most of his master's training, Shunshi stood up, got a glass of water and, after he took a drink, asked Saitama "So, Sensei. I haven't seen Genos-Senpai here all day or yesterday. Did you send him somewhere to train?" Without a hint of emotion, Saitama replied to this while reading his manga "I don't keep track of him. I haven't seen him sense I took care of that evolution home. He's probably got his own things to do."

Upon hearing this, Shunshi thought in a confused tone as he put his glass down in the sink "Seriously? Huh, I wonder where he is? I thought that he would've gotten repaired by now and stopped by for training."

Meanwhile; at the home of Shunshi's parents. Genos had arrived at the two story home of his junior and thought to himself in a cold tone "I should look further into who Shunshi is. I don't want him to wind up annoying Saitama-Sensei and getting in the way of making myself stronger."

Back at Saitama's place. Shunshi had grabbed his backpack and said calmly while walking over to Saitama's door "I'm gonna go do the running part of your training regiment now, Sensei."

While slightly looking up from his manga, Saitama waved to Shunshi and said with just a small hint of interest in what he was doing "Remember, 10 kilometers." Shunshi replied with an enthusiastic smile "Yes, Master!" He then took off down the street like a racecar on steroids.

After Shunshi had left, Saitama felt around his own mouth with his tong and thought in a bored and slightly annoyed tone "Oh, I forgot to brush my teeth... I guess I'll take care of it after I finish up with this manga volume."

Meanwhile, in the middle of Z-City. Shunshi was quickly running through the streets of this city and thinking to himself with uncertainty and a hint of fear "Will... will Sensei's training regiment actually make me stronger any faster than the training I've been doing so far? Will I even be able to get into the Hero Association by the end of the month? Will I even get into C-Class?!"

Back at the home of Shunshi's parents. Genos had walked up to the nice looking house, knocked on the door and, after waiting for a moment, he was greeted by Shunshi's mother.

The woman that was in her mid fifties was a little shocked by Genos' robotic appearance at first, but, after calming her nerves a bit, asked him in a half nervous half friendly tone "May I help you?"

Genos put his arms at his sides and stated stoically "I am an associate of the man named Shunshi. I was wondering if I could talk to his family."

Shunshi's mother's face soften upon hearing this and she stated with a smile "Oh, you must be one of the heroes that Shunshi said he was going to be training with. I'm his mother by the way."

Due to how kind this woman seemed to be, Genos' face softened a bit as well and he asked her in a kinder tone than he would usually use "May I come in?" Shunshi's mother replied happily "Oh, of course."

Shunshi's mother and Genos wound up sitting down in the living room. After having Genos wait for a moment, the kind women came back into some hot cocoa.

Before the conversation between these two could begin, Shunshi's father walked in and, after seeing Genos, asked in response to the shock he felt upon seeing the young man with metal arms and black and yellow eyes sitting in his living room "Who the hell are you?!"

Shunshi's mother replied to her panicking husband in a calming tone "Calm down, dear. This boy is named Genos. He's one of the two heroes that Shunshi told us that he's training with."

After hearing Shunshi's mother introduce him, Genos made a comment in a polite, yet correcting tone "I am not a boy, mam. I am 19 years old; this means I am legally an adult."

Both of Shunshi's parents were a little surprised by this sudden comment for a moment.

After recomposing himself with a cough, Shunshi's father asked Genos in a confused tone "You sure about that? You look like you're still in the middle of being a teenager." Genos replied to this in a polite tone once again "I was turned into a cyborg when I was 15 years old, so my face's appearance hasn't changed since then."

Both of Shunshi's parents were understandably baffled by this answer, but, in unison, they just replied in a polite tone "Oh... OK."

Deciding to get down to business, Genos stated in a more serious tone "During our last training session, I explained who I am and how I got to where I am in my life to Shunshi and our master, but some monsters attacked us before I had a chance to ask him any questions about just who exactly he is. I thought it over some more and came to the conclusion that it would be rude to just ask him his life story, so I wanted to know if you would be willing to explain anything about him to me."

Shunshi's father rubbed his beard while stating in a minimally disappointed tone "Isn't that just like my boy? So caught up in the excitement of a fight, that he didn't even properly introduce himself." He, then, turned to his wife and said in a respectful, yet confident tone "If you don't mind, I think I'll tell our son's story to this Genos."

Shunshi's mother playfully pinched her husband's face while saying with a smile "As long as you remember all the important facts."

After turning back to face Genos, Shunshi's father's face shifted to a much more serious look, resulting in him gaining the cyborg's full attention.

Shunshi's father started the story by saying "Well, I suppose I should start at my son's high school years. Shunshi's first year there was spent with his older sister. She was a bit of a sports star and kept bullies off of his back during that year, but she had graduated by the start of his second year. After his big sister had left, my boy got his butt handed to him by bullies constantly, so, in order to protect himself, he decided to start doing some basic exercises while also attending a martial arts class after school."

Shunshi's father's face, then, shifted to a much more proud look before continuing with the story "Pretty soon, my boy just beat down anyone who gave him crap! And after getting the local thugs off of his own back, he started helping out anyone else who got picked on by them! I tell ya, I thought that the confidence boost that he got from all of that would've given him all the courage that he needed to be a successful man!"

His face, then, turned to a more annoyed look before once again continuing in a now very annoyed tone of voice "But NOOOO! As soon as he found out about the Hero Association, he never even bothered going to a college. He went to go and apply for that group of part timers that try and do the suicidal job fighting off those freakish monsters that have been popping up in recent years, but he failed his test and then did something I was horrified of... He never got a job! He hasn't had a single job in his entire life and has been spending every single day training to be stronger since then. I thought he'd give up on it when he realized that he just couldn't compete with the pro heroes, but during some meditation or something, he suddenly caught on fire and started getting super powers of all things. Well, as you might imagine, getting super powers gave him a bit of a confidence boost, so he spent all of his free time between training to make a costume for himself... (sigh) I guess that tells you everything you need to know about him... Excuse me, I need some coffee."

After Shunshi's father left the room, Genos was thinking over everything that he had just told him, but his concentration was broken when Shunshi's mother let out a sigh and said in a disappointed tone "Just like as I expected, he forgot one of the most important fact."

Cocking his eyebrow at this, Genos asked curiously "And what fact would that be?"

Gaining a somewhat sad look on her face, Shunshi's mother hesitated for a second and then replied somberly "Shunshi suffers from clinical depression."

Genos was shocked to hear this, but he let Shunshi's mother continue without interruption.

She continued to say "I love my boy, but his grades in school were always just barley passing. The only thing he was ever really good at was fighting. I think it was more do to a lack of interest in the subjects he learned, rather than ignorance, but he was convinced that he would never get a good job, or rather, a job that he would actually want to do. The only times I ever really saw him happy was when he would talk about the other students that he helped with bully problems, that, combined with his love of reading superhero stories, planted the thought in his mind that he could only be happy if he was a superhero himself. When he actually gained powers from his meditation, he actually cried due to how happy he was. In all honesty, my husband is just concerned about our son dying while fighting criminals or monsters, as well as the idea of his son not living a fulfilling life, but I don't think he really realizes that Shunshi wouldn't be happy doing anything other than being a superhero."

Genos was a put into deep thought by this, so he stood up, bowed to Shunshi's mother and said to her in gratitude "Thank you for the information, but I'm afraid I can't stay any longer. I have... business to attend to. Thank you for your hospitality."

As Genos walked away, Shunshi's mother smiled and said cheerfully "Any friend of Shunshi's is a friend of ours'; feel free to visit any time, Genos."

Being taken a little off guard by her hospitality, Genos stopped walking, turned his head, and smiled at this kind hearted woman before saying "Thank you. I will keep that in mind."

As Genos started walking away from Shunshi's home and in the direction of Saitama's apartment, he thought to himself in a half calm, half sympathetic tone "... I think I will allow him to continue training with Sensei and myself for the time being."

Meanwhile, in F-City. Shunshi had been mindlessly running around for far more than 10 kilometers and he eventually came across a Zoo. While running past this Zoo, Shunshi heard a symphony of loud screams and ran into this place just in case there was someone in danger, and to see if he could help.

After maneuvering around a stampede of fearful people trying to get away, Shunshi saw that all of the dangerous animals in the Zoo had escaped their habitats and were attacking people. He was about to jump in and help, but he saw that several actual members of the Hero Association were already there, just C-Class heroes though.

These heroes included Red Nose, Hyottoko, Mohican, Red Muffler, and, one of Shunshi's personal favorite heroes, the noble License-less Rider. They were all doing their best to keep the escaped animals at bay, while the citizens escaped.

Shunshi had hidden off behind a bathroom and was putting on his costume while thinking nervously "Should I step in?! I don't want to get in the way of the actual heroes. I only got involved with Saitama-Sensei's and Genos-Senpai's fights because I was already fighting that mosquito monster before Genos arrived, and I only get involved with Master's fights because he's my teacher. I've risked enough already by getting involved with an A-Class and a S-Class... Maybe I should just leave and let the pros handle it this time, don't want to step on any more toes after all."

Just as he was about to start packing his costume back up, he saw Red Nose and Hyottoko with pretty bad injuries, running away from a lion while screaming in fear.

Shunshi was a little bewildered by this sight at first, but then thought awkwardly to himself "Maybe it wouldn't hurt to help out."

Just as Red Nose and Hyottoko ran out of the Zoo, Shunshi, now fully dressed in his costume, jumped at the lion and kicked it in its back, knocking it out due to the amount of pain he put it in with his attack.

Shunshi quickly turned to look at the heroes who had stayed to fight and saw Red Muffler, Mohican, and License-less Rider fighting a small pack of wolfs.

Red Muffler had one of the wolfs in a headlock and, after picking it up off of the ground, he threw it at a wall. Before he even had a chance to prepare himself for the next beast, another one of the wolves tackled him. While it had the hero pinned, the wolf tried to bite at his throat, but, fortunately for him, he was fast enough to shove one his armored arms into the wolf's mouth and, after continuing to grapple with the beast for a second, he head butted it, knocking it out cold, while also drawing some blood from his own forehead.

Mohican, while being surrounded by three wolfs, was standing at the ready. One of the animals tried to jump and bite at him, but he swiftly spin kicked it away while shouting "Mohi Cutter!"

The other two ran at him as fast as they could, in an attempt to rip in to shreds with their claws, but moved around them in such a way that allowed him to punch one of them in its head, knocking it into the other one while he shouted "Mohi Punch!"

License-less Rider ran at the last four wolfs and punched one of them on the top of its head, knocking it out could. Another wolf tried to bit at his arm, but he quickly pulled his arm away and kneed that wolf in its jaw, breaking a few of its teeth and knocking it out as well. He then ran at the last the last two wolves, reached underneath them and grabbed them by their necks before slamming them into a nearby wall while shouting "Justice Tackle!"

Upon witnessing these C-Class heroes deal with the wolves, Shunshi thought to himself in a tone of happy surprise "Huh. Looks like I really didn't need to step in after all. Although... I was able to keep up with their moves pretty easily, even License-less Rider... I guess I'm stronger than a C-Class hero after all. That's awesome!"

Just as the three of them started to relax, a rhino started charging at the professional heroes. Quickly composing himself, License-less Rider jumped onto his bike and started peddling straight at the charging rhino. He then jumped off of his bike and allowed it to crash into the rhino while shouting "Justice Crash!" The Bike just bounced off the rhino without it even phasing the beast as it then knocked License-less Rider away with a power slam from the side of its horn. The rhino then continued to charge at the now frightened Red Muffler and Mohican.

Seeing that these two heroes were about to get trampled, Shunshi blurted out in a panic "Oh crap!"

He, then, got ready to intervene the rhino's path, but, before he could do anything and all of a sudden, the B-Class hero Darkness Blade rushed past him and cut the rhino's head off with his longsword just as it was about to reach the other two heroes.

After whipping the blood off of his sword, Darkness Blade posed dramatically and said in a stoic tone "I, the great hero Darkness Blade, saw the two other C-Class heroes running away from this disaster, so I arrived on the scene to save you all with my merciless, evil slaying blade! Now, I will handle the rest of these escaped animals with my unstoppable sword!" Just as he finished saying this, a tiger rushed at Darkness Blade from behind and clawed at his back, knocking him onto his face and almost cutting through his fancy armor.

Darkness Blade, now with a somewhat panicked expression, quickly got back up and turned to face the tiger. License-less Rider tried to stand up so that he could rush over and help Darkness Blade, but the B-Class hero quickly, and with obvious desperation, thrusted his sword straight at the tiger, impaling its head on his blade.

Darkness Blade had a look of surprise and fear on his face, but he quickly recomposed himself when Red Muffler and Mohican started praising him.

Red Muffler, while pounding his fist into the air, stated proudly "That went much better than when we fought against the 170,000 year Magicicada Nymph! Well done!"

Placing a hand on Darkness Blades' shoulder, Mohican stated happily "Amazing! You always were promising as a rookie!"

Darkness Blade, without even bothering to give off a smile, replied with a cool and collected look on his face "That's why I'm a B-Class hero, but I don't really think that makes me much better than you guys, because I'm so cool."

When Darkness Blade said this, Red Muffler thought to himself in annoyance "Oh, right. I forgot that he's the kind of person that's better off not talking."

As he looked at Darkness Blade standing triumphantly above the dead rhino and tiger, Shunshi thought to himself in a bit of amazement "Oh man, it's Darkness Blade! I always thought he looked so awesome!... But did he really need to kill those animals?..."

Shunshi, then, looked down at the unconscious lion at his feet. Having become a bit concerned, he took off his gauntlet and felt the animal's nose, he then quickly put his gauntlet back on, because he was happy to see that the creature was still breathing.

Another thought, then, occurred to the dark clad hero "Darkness Blade was moving pretty slowly compared to me... Does that mean I'll be even higher ranked than him?! Holy crap, that's amazing!"

After finally being able to regather his strength, License-less Rider stood up and brushed himself off while giving a slightly annoyed look at Darkness Blade, but he, then, walked up to him and said with a grateful smile "Thank you for the help. Lets throw these wolfs back into their homes."

Realizing that things had finally calmed down, Shunshi hesitantly walked up to the professional heroes, while carrying the lion that he had knocked out over his shoulders, and asked them in a nervous tone of voice "Can I help you guys out with that?"

Mohican and Red Muffler both yelped in shocked, due to a combination of the intimidating appearance of Shunshi's outfit and the fact that he was carrying an unconscious lion on his shoulders, but Darkness Blade, while keeping up a cool and collected face, told the two of them in a commanding tone of voice "Calm down! I saw this hero defeat the lion that he's carrying in order to save the other heroes that ran away. What class and rank are you anyway?" Growing nervous, Shunshi replied "Well... Uh... I'm not an official hero yet. I failed my first exam and I'm gonna try again at the end of this month. I just wanted to lend a hand when I saw those other C-Class heroes run away. So... do any of you know where this lion's habitat is?"

Without warning, Mohican angrily yelled at Shunshi "You can't let anyone know about professional heroes running away from a fight, you punk! If you do, then we'll all make sure that you won't be allowed into the Hero Association, even if you do pass your hero exam!"

Shunshi was understandably a little surprised and scared by this sudden outburst from one of the pro heroes he admired so much, while Red Muffler just looked at the unregistered hero that had easily beaten, and was carrying on his shoulders, a creature that he himself just couldn't have handled on his own and thought with a mixture of genuine intimidation and slight admiration "How highly ranked WOULD this guy be if he joined the Association?"

Pushing Mohican aside, Darkness Blade stated coldly to Shunshi "We won't hold anything against you if you don't tell anybody about this and allow us to take full credit for beating that lion you took down! I'll do this for you, because I'm such a cool guy."

License-less Rider, something in him seeming to have snapped, walked up to Darkness Blade and said angrily "If he honestly just came here to help us, then let's leave it at that and not harass him! He's not an official hero yet, so we'll get the all the credit for this anyway."

In response to this, Darkness Blade put on a serious face while thinking in relief "Good point. I didn't want to try and intimidate this guy anyway. He looks scary and he took down a lion without even using a weapon."

After coughing, he said out loud in his calm, yet somehow still arrogant sounding tone "You're right. I already had that figured out, I just didn't feel like showing off how cleaver I am and making the other two feel bad."

Giving off a small glare at the B-Class hero, Red Muffler thought in slight annoyance "What is this guy even talking about?!"

A few minutes later, after all of the animals that hadn't been killed were put back into their habitats, License-less Rider walked up to Shunshi, placed his hand on his shoulder and said encouragingly to the younger, unregistered hero "Good luck on your test. For what it's worth from a C-Class, I think you can definitely make it in." Shunshi smiled at this and responded happily "Thank you, License-less Rider, sir!"

The Rider, then, got back onto his bike, turned to face the other heroes, smiled at them while giving them all a thumbs up and then started riding away.

Shunshi thought in awe as the Rider for justice rode away on his bike "He's... he's just so awesome!"

Shunshi and the three other heroes, after thanking each other properly, started heading for the exit when, all of a sudden, a disheveled looking man came in through the entrance way that they were headed for, all while being carried through the air by hundreds of small birds.

Meanwhile. License-less Rider had already ridden far enough away from the zoo that he no longer had any way of knowing what was happening there. As he was ridding along, a young boy asked him if he would help him get his balloon out of a tree, to which he happily agreed to do.

Back at the Zoo; the disheveled man being carried by birds said to the small gathering of heroes in front of him in an angry and superior tone of voice "I see... So you're the ones that beat my troops and put them back in their cages! I am the King Of Nature, a Dragon Level Disaster and I will enslave humanity with my ability to control all animals around me, an ability given to me by God!"

Having heard enough of this man's insane ramblings, Darkness Blade took out his sword and stated "Evil doer! Prepare to be slain by my merciless, evil slaying blade!"

Just as he said this, dozens of the small birds that had been carrying the King of Nature swarmed at Darkness Blade and started pecking at multiple places on his body. He futilely tried to swing at the small birds with his sword, but, due to their size and speed, he couldn't hit any of them as they continued to make cuts on his exposed flesh.

Before the other three heroes could try to attack the King Of Nature, they heard a loud trumpeting in the distance and, then, felt the ground shaking beneath them.

The source of this rumbling exposed itself to be an elephant that was charging at the three of them.

Shunshi wanted to react to this goliath animal, but Mohican rushed at it first. He jump kicked at the elephant while shouting "Mohi Glide!" But the elephant easily ran through Mohican's attack and just kept charging forward as he laid on the ground, unconscious and with a broken leg.

Quickly taking action, Shunshi stated to Red Muffler as white fire covered his body "Stay here!" He, then, ran at the elephant, jumped at the creature's face, grabbed onto its tusks and forced it to fall onto its side by twisting its head.

While the elephant was on its side, it threw it trunk at Shunshi and tried to wrap him up with it, but he managed to wrap one of his arms underneath the trunk and begin pulling at it.

While Shunshi was struggling with the elephant, Darkness Blade with the birds, and Mohican with the ground, Red Muffler just stood their awkwardly and afraid. He looked up at the King Of Nature standing on a mass of birds.

All of a sudden, Red Muffler whipped away the blood that had gathered on his forehead earlier, and it then seemed as if he had decided to just walk away, but just as soon as he walked out of the zoo's main entrance, he jumped and climbed up on top of the stone wall around the zoo, and, then, he jumped into the air, straight in the direction that the King Of Nature was in.

As soon as Red Muffler's momentum got him close enough to his target, he preformed a forward flip and axe-kicked the King Of Nature in the back of his head, knocking him out cold as blood flew from his new injury.

When this happened, all of the animals suddenly past out.

Both of them having realized what he had just succeeded in doing, Shunshi and Darkness Blade looked at Red Muffler with a mix of surprise and appreciation.

Red Muffler smiled while holding his fist up in the air confidently, all while saying with a somewhat surprised smile on his face "Ha ha ha, looks like he wasn't nearly as tough as he liked to pretend to be! Dragon Level my ass!"

Shunshi was glad that this was over and suggested to Darkness Blade and Red Muffler while he was catching his breath "(Huff)- How about you guys take in Nature King to the Association prison and get Mohican some medical attention, while I put this elephant back in its habitat?"

Not really understanding how he could do this, Red Muffler asked Shunshi in a puzzled tone "How would you do that, exactly?"

In response to the question, Shunshi took his hood off, put his clawed gloves inside of the hood and, after struggling for a few seconds, he picked up the elephant over his head.

In a humble tone of voice, and while also gasping for breath Shunshi asked "Don't these guys only weigh, like, 2 or 3 tons? I can lift... 7 tons... I think."

Both of the professional heroes stared at Shunshi's feat of strength and, both of them having become overwhelmed with shock, couldn't think of anything to say in response to it.

Deciding it was best to just leave Shunshi to his devices, Darkness Blade put the King Of Nature over his shoulders, while Red Muffler carried Mohican. The two, then, speedily ran out of the zoo in order to get to the Hero Association as quickly as possible, all while while Shunshi carried the elephant back to its habitat.

While the two professional heroes were running back to HQ, the concussed King Of Nature started mumbling to himself about something "What?... God?... What is it you... NO! Don't take away my-" Before he could finish his sentence, he rotted away and turned into dust while still on Darkness Blade's shoulder, freaking out both heroes, even making them both scream quite a bit.

Back at the zoo. Shunshi had placed the elephant back into its habitat and was putting his gauntlets back on when he saw a building collapsing in the distance.

Realizing that he had found more evil to stop, Shunshi mumbled to himself in a half excited and half tired tone of voice "A hero's work is never done, I guess."

He, then, quickly started running and jumping as fast as he could in order to find out what was happening in the city.

Meanwhile, License-less Rider had gotten the child's balloon out of the tree and started riding away on his bike proudly as the child waved him goodbye.

After patrolling around for a bit longer, he heard an explosion come from farther into the city and went to investigate in order to see if any people needed help.

Back at Saitama's apartment. Saitama had just finished brushing his teeth and was sitting around his home, being bored as usual.

Grabbing his TV remote, Saitama thought to himself emotionlessly "Let's see what's on the news." He turned on the TV and listened while still going about his business.

The news reporter stated "-A terrorist group called the Paradisers. This group is lead by the B-Class criminal Hammerhead and is comprised of young men with no motivation to work. This group has come into possession of high-tech suits of battle armor-"

Hearing all of this, Saitama thought in an uncaring tone "Eh, the police should be able to handle it."

Back to the reporter's sentence "And each of them have heads that have been shaved bald. If you see anyone like this, do not approach them, as they are extremely dangerous."

Saitama was horrified by this and thought in panic "What!? That's my look! I have to stop them before people start mistaking me for a terrorist!"

Having used his super speed to put his costume on as quickly as possible, Saitama rushed out of his house in order to stop the Paradisers.

Meanwhile. License-less Rider had managed to find the source of the disturbance, a group of criminals, all of whom head shaved their heads balled and were wearing some kind of robotic armor.

These criminals had just finished tearing through a squad of riot officers and the large man who seemed to be leading the criminals stated "This is too easy!"

Infuriated by the risk to public safety that these men presented, License-less Rider shouted angrily while peddling towards the criminals "Hold it!"

After they had all turned to face his direction, the rider stopped in front of them, got off of his bike, kicked out the stand for it up and, while getting ready to fight, he said to them with heroic confidence in his voice "The bicyclist for justice is here! License-less Rider!"

When nearby people saw that License-less Rider had shown up to save the day, they started cheering out of relief "It's License-less Rider! We'll be safe now that he's here!" License-less Rider simply smiled at the encouragement that he was getting from the crowed.

The criminal leader, who's armor had a flame pattern on the waist, just smirked and asked in a cocky tone "A hero? What a joke!"

Ignoring this taunt, License-less Rider readied himself mentally and quickly charged into combat, only to be taken out with a single punch from one of the criminals, resulting in a nearby citizen to shout out in fear "Someone call the police!"

A few minutes later, as the Paradisers were making their way through wave after wave of police officers, Shunshi ran to confront them himself, all the while, Saitama kept getting stopped in the street by panicking people mistaking him for one of the Paradisers.

Just as the Paradisers were starting to make their way into a forest, Shunshi had caught up to them and threw one of his light balls at one of their backs, knocking the Paradiser that it had hit off of his feet, although he immediately got back up.

Jumping out and presenting himself to them, Shunshi stated dramatically to the Paradisers while taking a pose "Well, it's certainly a good thing that I caught up to you thugs here of all places. Now I can fight you all without having to worry about civilians getting hurt!"

Having no clue who Shunshi was, Hammerhead stared at him for a moment with an annoyed look on his face, before he said to the aspiring hero with an unimpressed tone of of voice "Get lost or get put down."

Shunshi was heavily offended by Hammerhead's attitude and quickly rushed at Him, all while making sure to cover himself in his white flames, but he was easily backhanded away by the large man in battle armor.

Shunshi fell onto his back, but he quickly got back up and thought in a serious tone "This guy hits almost as hard as that mosquito thing did before it transformed... Damn it all! Another Demon!"

As Hammerhead started walking towards Shunshi with killing intent in his eyes, a bucktoothed Paradiser stepped in front of his boss and said with a confident grin "Leave him to me, boss! You guys should focus on taking down Zeniru rather than this suicidal idiot."

Shunshi was annoyed at being called an idiot, so he rushed at this Paradiser and threw a flurry of punches at him while thinking "This one was shown to me by Genos-Senpai!"

He, then, shouted out righteously as the Paradiser had his arms raised in defense "LIGHT KIE MACHINE GUN!"

As his armor protected him from Shunshi's rapid punches, the Paradiser turned his head and smiled at his boss while saying "Don't worry, boss! I got this one!"

Hammerhead smiled at his underling and shouted "Alright Paradisers! Let's go and kill Zeniru!"

As the other Paradisers walked away, the one that stayed behind, thrusted his arms forward and forced Shunshi to stumble back by a few feet.

As he regained his footing, Shunshi thought to himself in a calculating tone "I could just punch him in his head and kill him... but he's not really a monster, he's just a criminal in a suit of armor. So should I risk killing him?... Let's just see how this fight goes."

Shunshi ran back up to the bucktoothed Paradiser, resulting in bucktooth throwing a couple of punches at Shunshi, but he redirected one of the punches away from himself and spin-dodged around another while swinging one of his feet at the Paradiser's ankles, knocking him to the ground.

Shunshi tried to lightly punch bucktooth in his face, so that he could be done with this fight, but the armor clad man caught the young man's fist in his hand and threw him away.

Just as Shunshi had spun around in the air in order to land on his feet, the Paradiser stood back up and ripped a huge chunk of rock out of the ground, he, then, tossed it at Shunshi.

In a bit of a desperate panic, Shunshi tried firing a light ball at the boulder, even though he knew that the explosion it would make wouldn't be a strong enough to stop a boulder as big as the one that the Paradiser had thrown.

However, much to Shunshi's surprise, the light ball that he fired was almost twice the size of one of his normal ones, resulting in the boulder getting demolished in midair.

Shunshi thought to himself in confusion as the dust cloud from the exploding boulder settled "Wait... it usually takes me longer to charge up the power for a larger light ball that powerful... Don't look a gift horse in the mouth I guess. And I still gotta deal with this Paradiser!"

Shunshi swiftly started running circles around the Paradiser while occasionally punching and kicking at his armor, in order to try and knock him off balance or damage the battle-suit, but, after a few minutes of this, he had to stop and back off due to his fists, arms, knee caps and feet, even with the protection of his armor and kie, feeling like they were going to break if they kept hitting this seemingly unbreakable armor.

Bucktooth laughed at Shunshi as he rubbed his hand and said happily "I haven't even had to actually attack you to hurt you yet, your own attacks are doing the job for me!"

Snarled at the Paradiser from behind his helmet, Shunshi said, in what sounded like a growl "Don't you EVER laugh at me, you scum-bag terrorist!"

He, then, generated a few small light balls and shot them at the Paradiser's feet. Bucktooth, thinking that nothing Shunshi could do would hurt him, smiled confidently, but he was taken off guard and started coughing when the explosion from the light balls created a large dust cloud all around him.

Gaining a bit of confidence, Shunshi thought "Now I just rush through the cloud and give that jerk a light punch to the head... What am I gonna do about the rest of the Paradisers, though?... I'll guess I'll just fight as hard as I can to stop them, even if I can never stand again afterwards; that's what a hero does!"

Just as Shunshi was rushing through the dust cloud, ready to sock bucktooth in his face, he was knocked over by Hammerhead running past the two of them, with a kunai stuck in the back of his head.

Shunshi was, naturally, very confused by this odd sight, but he was far more startled by the fact that the bucktoothed Paradiser was laying on the ground, beheaded.

Having become a bit grossed out by this sight, Shunshi stumbled backwards in surprise, before seeing, what looked like, a pissed off ninja standing in front of him.

The ninja asked Shunshi while scowling "Which way did Hammerhead go?"

Shunshi examined this ninja for a moment and was further shocked when he saw his blood drenched kitana.

Shunshi thought in a panicked tone, while the ninja began to gain an annoyed look "Is this the guy that scared off Hammerhead?! Where are the rest of the Paradiser's? Did he kill them all with just that sword?!"

Having grown impatient with the lack of answers he was getting from Shunshi, The ninja shouted angrily "Answer me or get cut get cut down, worm! Where did Hammerhead go?!"

Having become terrified by this warrior's killer intentions, Shunshi replied in a fearful tone while pointing south "That way... Uh, hey. How about I go with you? I'm training to become a hero, and this guy is pretty dangerous... You might need some help."

The ninja just gave Shunshi an unimpressed and hateful look, before grinning and saying in a mocking tone of voice "Sure, you can come along, 'hero'... if you can even keep up with me that is!"

Shunshi was confused by what exactly this ninja meant by 'keep up', but before he could ask him anything, the ninja vanished with a blinding speed, leaving behind a dust cloud, as well as all of the blood that was on his sword.

After being stunned silent by this ninja's speed for a second, Shunshi thought in a self-criticizing tone "What are you doing, moron?! Chase after him!"

He then started running as fast as his body would allow him to, in the direction that Hammerhead and the ninja had run off in.

Meanwhile, Saitama, who had finally managed to avoid all of the people that were calling him a terrorist, was walking around the forest and looking for the Paradisers, when he saw Hammerhead running away from something while wearing a terrified and pissed off expression.

Having noticed this unimpressive looking bald man in a superhero outfit, Hammerhead looked at at Saitama in confusion, as Saitama said happily with a small smile "Ah, found you!"

Deciding to stop and ask questions, Hammerhead looked at Saitama's bald head and asked in a slightly hopeful tone "You here to join the Paradisers?" Saitama replied to this nonchalantly "Actually, I'm just here to kick your ass."

Not wanting to have to waste time with another weak hero, Hammerhead threw a punch at Saitama's face and started looking around while thinking out loud "Gotta find a way outta here quick." He then saw that Saitama was still standing next to him, completely unphased by his attack.

Having grown a look of disappointment, Saitama asked Hammerhead "Is that it? What a let down. I was all excited to fight these battle suits. But the design is lame and all they do is give you superhuman strength."

Having grown infuriated with Saitama, Hammerhead shouted at him ferociously while getting ready for another attack "You have no idea how hard it was to steal these things! How could you possibly know their value?!"

All of a sudden, the flame design on his suit started glowing, while the suit itself started growing more bulky and muscular.

Hammerhead stated angrily at Saitama "I've been looking for someone to test the full power of this suit on!" He, then, started spinning his arms like windmills and charging towards Saitama while declaring "Spin Attack!"

Saitama, remembering a fight he had when he was a child, realized with a very small amount of shock "I used to use that move all the time when I was a kid."

Just as Hammerhead's fist were about to slam down on Saitama, he effortlessly caught them both in his hands. This caused Hammerhead to exclaim in fear and shock "Huh? No way!"

Looking over the odd man he was holding by the fists, Saitama started contemplating his life choices "Hammerhead, huh? He's a lot like me."

While struggling to get out of Saitama's grip, Hammerhead asked in a mixture of frustration and fear "What the Hell are you?!" Instead of giving an answer, Saitama let go of one of his hands and backhanded the armor that Hammerhead was in, shattering it and leaving the B-Class criminal butt-naked.

Realizing that his armor had been destroyed, Hammerhead squealed in fear, took a few steps backwards, started sweating heavily and said to Saitama in a pleading tone of voice "Wait, hold on! I just wanted to get out of working, that's all!"

As Hammerhead smiled fearfully, Saitama aid to this failure of a terrorist leader in his usual emotionless tone "Don't be bad anymore, okay?"

Hammerhead was confused by this response and asked "Huh? Wait, you mean you're not gonna kill me?"

Saitama continued to reply to him in his emotionless tone "Get lost." Hammerhead replied to the hero in a very polite manner as he off, butt naked and with a kunai in the back of hiss head "Right! You got it! AAAGHAAHAHAHAHA!"

Saitama sighed and said in a somewhat disappointed tone "Well, that's that. Guess I'll go home."

The ninja from earlier, then, suddenly appeared behind Saitama and asked him in a calm, yet superior tone of voice "Where did Hammerhead run off to?"

Saitama turned to face the ninja, with a confused look on his face.

The ninja, with the same tone of voice, said to Saitama "There's no one left here but you."

Saitama, having no reaction to seeing a ninja, pointed west and said emotionlessly "Hammerhead ran that way, screaming and yelling, buck-naked."

Just as Saitama finished saying this, he swiped a kunai out of the air. While looking at the throwing knife, he questioned "What's this thing?"

Saitama, then, caught the ninja's kitana in his free hand, just as it was about to hit him in his eye.

The fact that this yellow clad Paradiser was able to stop his attacks, shocked the speedy ninja.

Saitama, still speaking in his default emotionless tone, said to the ninja while crushing his sword in half "Hey, you got it wrong."

At this moment, Shunshi had caught up with the ninja and saw his master and said ninja standing across from each other.

Concerned for his Teacher's safety, Shunshi yelled "Master!"

Saitama noticed that one of his would be students had now shown up and asked him with minor curiosity "Shunshi? What are you doing here, man?"

Shunshi stated anxiously "Master, be careful. This man defeated all of the Paradisers on his own! He's really dangerous!"

Saitama swiped another kunai out of the air well before it was in any danger of hitting him, surprising Shunshi and angering the ninja.

After nonchalantly discarding this weapon to the ground, Saitama said in a patient tone to the ninja "I told you, you got it wrong."

The ninja asked in an annoyed tone "What did I get wrong, exactly?" Saitama replied calmly "I know how this looks, but I'm not one of the Paradisers."

The ninja closed his eyes for a second before stating in a quiet, yet firm tone "You're a terrible liar."

Saitama, having become somewhat frustrated, yelled "No no no! Don't be stupid! Look at me! I'm-" The ninja cut Saitama off by stating "I don't need to know who you are. With that bald head, there's no denying it."

Shunshi interjected in a defensive tone "My master is just naturally bald, you jerk!"

Saitama was made very upset by his student's attempt at defending him and turned to shout at him "Shut up! You're not helping!"

He, then, turned back to the ninja and said in a very annoyed tone "Oh come on! Really, take a good look at me. I'm the guy who's a hero for fun, I'm not a-"

The ninja cut him off once again by saying calmly "I've never heard of you. And if that guy is actually your student, then that doesn't say much for your reputation. He couldn't even beat a single one of those Paradisers on his own."

Being offended at the insults the ninja had thrown out, Shunshi's eyes started glowing white with fire, while Saitama's face just showed utter defeat at not being recognized.

The ninja, then, started speaking in a much more serious tone, all while gaining a very creepy smile on his face "Either way, it doesn't matter to me in the least. What does matter is that you saw through and countered three of my attacks, that's the real problem. I was born in a ninja village and was taught the art of the ninja since I was just a child. Yet, you saw through three of my attacks! This I cannot permit!"

Saitama who's face changed to one of confusion, thought with a minimal amount of concern "What's he even talking about?"

The ninja, while suddenly disappearing into the trees with his inhuman speed said "I don't care who you are! My pride won't allow for you to exist. I just have to kill you right now!"

Shunshi was about to run in and try to help, but Saitama gestured for him to stop, while saying in a cheery tone of voice "Don't worry, Shunshi. This guy just wants to test his moves out on me. I can tell by that innocent smile on his face."

The ninja, who was now facing away from both of them, covered his mouth with his hand when Saitama said this.

The ninja, then, continued jumping around the trees of the forest at continuously higher speeds, speeds that were too fast for Shunshi's eyes to keep up with. While all of this was happening, Saitama just stood there calmly.

The ninja, as he sprung about around Saitama, thought happily "There's no hope for him keeping up with me! I have speed that beats even sound itself! I have to kill him now!"

Thinking that he saw an opening in his opponent's defence, the ninja leaped at the hero for fun, only for him to quickly turn his head and ask in a bored tone "Uh, can I go home now?"

The ninja was completely shocked by his opponent's reflexes, so he spun around in the air like a windmill, and then threw an axe kick while shouting angrily "You bastard! Wind Blade Kick!"

Much to this speedy warrior's continued surprise, Saitama casually moved his body out of the way of the attack, while putting his fist into the air and saying "Checkmate."

The ninja tried to move out of the way of Saitama's fist, but the momentum of his speed carried him forward and launched his testicles into the fist of the bald hero.

When this happened, the ninja backed off and Saitama said with a sincere apology in his voice "Oops, sorry. I uh.. I meant to stop short of hitting you, but your momentum carried my fist into your... uh..."

Unable to here Saitama's words, the ninja's eyes had become bloodshot with pain and he let out a shrill gasp before he started screaming bloody murder.

After witnessing this awkward scene, Shunshi thought to himself with more self-criticisms "I guess I should stop underestimating Sensei..."

He, then, listened to the ninja continue screaming for another minute or two before commenting in an annoyed tone "... We'll be back in a moment, folks."

Seven minutes later. The ninja pointed at Saitama dramatically, while his legs shook in pain "I am the ninja who has beaten sound: Speed-O-Sound Sonic! What is your name?!"

Feeling a little sorry for the guy, Saitama replied to him in an awkward tone "... It's Saitama."

Speed-O-Sonic then sated in a mixture of pain and anger "Saitama! From now on, we are rivals! The next time we meet will be your last!"

Realizing that he might be able to have some fun with this guy in the future, Saitama replied to him with a smile, clenching his fist and said in a serious tone "Go train hard!"

Sonic, then, disappeared.

After letting out a sigh of relief, Saitama walked past Shunshi and said in an upset tone "I'm going home."

Shunshi watched his master walk past him for a moment before thinking in confusion "That Sonic guy said he had no idea who Sensei even was... come to think of it; I never even heard of Sensei before he saved Genos and I... I feel like more people SHOULD know who he is. I need to talk to him abou this!"

Wanting answers, Shunshi quickly ran up to Saitama's side and asked him in an almost child like manner "May I come with you, Sensei? There's something I need to talk about with you."

Saitama looked at Shunshi with annoyance and asked him "Whatever it is, can't it wait till tomorrow?"

Shunshi shook his head and replied hesitantly "I... I'm sorry, but... no. This is very important, Master!"

Saitama rubbed his temples in annoyance and replied in a frustrated tone "Fine. But wait till we get back to my place. I need time to think!"

Straightening his posture, Shunshi replied to his master with great respect in his voice "Yes, sir!"

On the walk back to Saitama's place, the two of them ran into, and were then joined by, Genos.

Back at Saitama's house. Genos and Shunshi, the latter of whom had removed his metal gauntlets, helmet and boots, were sitting across the table from Saitama and watching him with great interest, while he just looked frustrated.

Shunshi asked nervously "Can we talk now, Master?"

While clenching onto his brow in frustration Saitama replied sharply "Just hold on a second! The incidents of today made me aware of a serious problem and I'm reeling from shock!"

Having become almost frightened to hear this, Genos asked with very real concern in his voice "What could possibly pose a problem for someone as great as you, Master?"

After taking a deep breath, Saitama, with a defeated look on his face, looked at the two young men sitting across from him and said in a plain yet deadly serious tone of voice "I'm not famous. No one even knows who I am."

The fact that this was what was bothering him shocked both Shunshi and Genos into silence.

Saitama continued explaining his problems to his students in an upset tone "It's been around three years since I first became a hero. I've saved the world from a whole bunch of disasters, evil organizations and monsters in that time. Come to think of it, I've never heard of any another hero doing as much work as me, not even close! Everyone in the world should know my name by now! I mean, isn't it kinda weird that I don't have any fans or anything?! But do you want to know what I heard from a ninja today?"

While leaning slightly closer in, Genos thought in confusion "A ninja?"

Saitama continued "'Never heard of you!'... Never! On top of that, everyone in town thought I was one of those terrorists. Did everyone forget about how I beat all those monsters and all the other stuff I did for them?"

Snapping his finger in excitement, Shunshi commented in and agreeing tone of voice "That's what I wanted to talk about with you!" Hearing Shunshi say this, Saitama looked at him with a little bit of excitement in his normally emotionless eyes and asked "You want to start a fan club for me!?"

Being slightly embarrassed by this question, Shunshi replied with hesitance in his voice "Oh, uh... no... um... sorry?... What I wanted to say was that I had never even heard of you until you saved Genos and I from that mosquito monster! And I couldn't find either one of you on the Hero Registry afterwards." Saitama looked puzzled when Shunshi brought up this 'hero registry' thing.

Having come out of deep thought, Genos asked Saitama calmly "Sensei, ARE you in the Superhero Registry?"

Having no idea what they were talking about, Saitama raised his fists into the air asked Genos and Shunshi almost angrily "What are you guys talking about?! What's this 'superhero registry?!"

A few minutes later of browsing the internet later. The three unlicensed heroes were looking through the Hero Association website and reading what it said.

Saitama said in a miserable tone as he finished reading through the web page "-You may be doing a bunch of hero work, but if you're unregistered, you're really just some weir-... weirdo."

Saitama looked upset, rested his forehead on his fists, and said miserably "I had no idea..."

A shock of realization having washed over him, Shunshi slowly commented awkwardly "... I kinda assumed you guys were both already members of the Hero Association when I asked to train with the two of you..."

Genos thought this over for a second, before replying in an understanding tone "I guess I can see why you would assume that. From what I've heard, this organization has some decently powerful heroes working underneath it."

Saitama turned to both of his wannabe students and asked "So... just to be clear... Are either of you registered?" Genos shook his head and commented "That's not something I concern myself with... Why, should I be?"

In response to Saitama's question, Shunshi shrugged and said in a flustered tone "I tried to a few years ago, but failed to pass. I planed to take the test at the end of this month, after I'd finished training with you for a bit longer."

Saitama smiled and said "Lets all go register right now! If you guys come with me, I'll officially make you both my disciples!"

Genos quickly said with a smile "Alright! Sounds like a plan!"

Due to the memories of having failed his last exam attempt, Shunshi asked Saitama and Genos in a bit of a panic "Ri- right now?! This month just began a few days ago!"

Not being concerned in the slightest, Saitama said in a happy and reassuring tone of voice "We're all pretty strong. I'm sure we'll all get in with no problem."

Having received these words of encouragement from the man he practically idolized, Shunshi thought his chances over for a minute, put his armor back on and, then, said confidently "Sensei. Senpai. let's head out!"


	4. Chapter 4: The Work

Saitama, Genos and Shunshi had all arrived at the Hero Association's testing hall. While walking up to the stadium-like testing building, Shunshi couldn't stop thinking to himself in a mortified tone "Am I ready for this?! Am I ready for this?! Am I ready for this?! Oh God, I'm so not ready for this!"

As Saitama, Genos and Shunshi were walking along, people all around them were frightened by the intimidating appearances of the Cyborg with black and yellow eyes and the man dressed in the scary grey and black full body armor, accompanied by a black cloak.

When the trio of unregistered heroes walked into the testing hall in order to register as official heroes, they were all directed to different testing halls by the staff working there.

After each of them entered what almost looked like high school classrooms, they were given the first test, the written test.

While taking this part of the test, Shunshi was easily breezing through it while thinking to himself in confusion and frustration "I... Really?! Were there seriously no updates made to this test in the three years since I took it?... I can't believe I studied for this thing!"

After finishing the written test, Shunshi was directed to a changing room and given a speedo to change into for the physical part of the test.

When Shunshi walked out into the physical testing area, he was surrounded by various different and colorful people: There were insanely well-built men and woman, people who were wearing head gear that seemed to be part of their superhero costumes, other people were obviously martial artists of some kind, and many others who were far too odd to describe just what their gimmick was exactly.

Despite his embarrassment at having to wear a speedo in the middle of a large crowed, Shunshi couldn't help but think to himself in excitement at the sight of all these strong looking people who were going to take the hero test "Holly crap! There are really strong looking people here, and there are so many of them ta boot! The Hero Association is gonna double, maybe even triple in size after this!"

A few of the more muscular people that were there laughed at the blatant, child-like excitement coming off of Shunshi behind his back, only for them to be stunned silent by what they saw come from him next.

The first test that was given was jumping side to side for thirty seconds; Shunshi preformed six hundred twenty jumps in the time given for this part of the test. The next part was vertical jumping; he manged to jump thirty eight feet into the air. Weight lifting was up next; Shunshi, by pushing himself to his physical limits, managed to lift ten tons. Shot put was the next test and he threw the metal ball a distance of two testing halls away. A fifteen hundred meter run was the next test; Shunshi completed this in twenty one seconds. Up next was a game of whack-a-mole, which was meant to be a way of testing reflexes; Shunshi just barely managed to get the third highest score out of all the test participants on this. Finally, the last test was simply hitting a punching machine and Shunshi, by combining his superhuman strength with his martial arts techniques, earned him a perfect score on it.

During every single one of these tests, Shunshi was completely and utterly confused as to why practically no one else was able to keep up with him in any of these events.

While being directed out of the testing halls, Shunshi thought to himself in a bit of disappointment "I guess no one aside from Saitama-Sensei and Genos-Senpai are making it into any spot higher than B-Class."

Shunshi, while going back to the locker rooms in order to get changed, was given an envelope by the testing personnel that contained his finale score.

He, then, made his way to the locker room and quickly found Saitama and Genos there as well, so he went to talk with them.

Saitama noticed Shunshi walking up to him and Genos and gave a small smile while saying "Hey, Shunshi. Genos and I were just talking about how easy this whole testing thing was." Genos smiled while shaking his head arrogantly before commenting "The written part of the test was far too easy in my opinion."

Shunshi giggled at how casual his superiors were being with this, he then bowed to them while saying without a hint of doubt in his voice "I'm sure you both did wonderfully... If you guys don't mind, I'd like for us to review my test scores first." Saitama waved his hand uncaringly and said "Go for it."

Nodding his head to Saitama, Shunshi nervously opened up the envelope that he was given while thinking "Please don't be too horrible this time! Please, at least let me pass!?" Looking at his score, Shunshi was disappointed when he saw that he had a small score of only 97 out of the 100 possible points.

Shunshi sighed in self-deprivation before saying in a disappointed tone "Oh well. Guess I shouldn't have expected any more than a low score like that... WAIT A SECOND! 97 out of 100?! What the Hell?! This can't be right! This would nearly put me in the top ten of A-Class!" Genos replied in a supportive tone "I do not think that you are giving yourself enough credit. Based on what I've seen from you, I think that you should have gotten an even higher score than that... Although, I'm not sure what this whole class system is is." Even with Genos' supportive words, Shunshi still had a doubtful look on his face and said "Thank you... but..."

Have not really paid attention to what Shunshi was saying, Genos cut him off by calmly and quickly stating "I think I will check my own score now." Shunshi, having to recompose due to being stopped mid-sentence, said in an embarrassed tone "Oh, right. Sorry, Senpai."

Shunshi, then, thought in a depressed and confused tone "I'm gonna have to ask someone about this mistake later on."

Genos opened up his envelope, quickly looked over his score sheet and calmly said "I got a perfect score of 100 out of 100 points. This says I'm something called S-Class." Shunshi was shocked speechless by what Genos said his score was, while Saitama asked in a puzzled tone "A-Class? S-Class? Why do heroes need classes? Whatever, guess I'll see what my own score is."

As Saitama was opening his envelope, Shunshi began to sweat as he thought to himself in a mixture of a huge panic and annoyance "S... S-CLASS!? How did Genos make it into S-Class?! I know that he's really strong and all, but isn't his strength just the average kind of power for a high ranking A-Class hero?!"

While being oblivious to Shunshi's panicked expression, Saitama opened up his envelope and took out the first half of his test score, showing the top half of an even larger S than the S that was on Genos' score sheet.

Seeing this, Shunshi thought to himself in frustration "Okay, so there must be some sort of 'super' S-Class that's kept in secret for heroes as powerful as Sensei... That HAS to be it!" Genos saw the top half of Saitama's larger S, smiled and said proudly "An even larger S than my own. As expected of Sensei."

Saitama, then, turned his back to his two admirers and looked over the rest of his score sheet in private. Seeing the the shocked mannerism that Saitama's body took after taking out all of his score sheet, Genos and Shunshi became a bit concerned. Saitama turned back around with a demoralized face and said in a tone of fake happiness to Genos and Shunshi "Looks like I did pass after all... but only with 71 out of 100 points, putting me at C-Class..."

Genos started to frantically scan Saitama's score sheet while Shunshi stated angrily "Now I know that something is screwed up with the scores here!"

Genos said in a passive aggressive tone while continuing to scan the score sheet "Now I see... We mistook the top half of the C for a large S." Not wanting to hear about it, Saitama shouted angrily at Genos "Stop scanning it already!"

After they both gained bloodthirsty looks on their faces, Genos and Shunshi said in unison to Saitama "We'll go have a talk with the people in charge about this; just wait hear master!" Saitama quickly stopped them by exclaiming in a begging tone of voice "Please don't; I'd die of embarrassment! All that matters is that we passed."

Before things could escalate any further, a voice came over the PA system and said "Mr. Genos. Mr. Shunshi. Mr. Saitama. There will be a seminar for successful candidates at 4:00 PM. Please come to lecture hall #3." Having calmed down Saitama set his score sheet down and calmly said to his two admires "Alright, lets go. Lets get this over with and go home."

The three then got changed back into their civilian clothing and went to lecture hall #3.

When the three of them walked into the room, Shunshi was amazed to see Biting Fist Sneck, the A-Class hero, was there to greet them.

After they had all taken a seat, Sneck said in a impatient yet still slightly friendly tone "First off, congrats on passing." Sneck, then, looked at Saitama, who was chewing some gum, and said with a condescending tone "Now, one of you only made it on a fluke, so unless you want your good luck to go to waste, I'd better see you giving it your all!" He then turned to a much more aggressive mannerism and continued to say "So you'd better keep your ego in check! From here on out, keep your hero status in mind and act modestly! After all; your faces will be placed on the Hero Association website."

Genos had a completely stoical expression, Shunshi had a look that was a combination of respect, admiration and nervousness, and Saitama blew a bubble with his gum, causing Sneck to gain a much more annoyed look on his face, before asking angrily "Did you hear me?! That bald goofball face of yours is gonna be shown to the whole world! If you don't want to humiliate yourself..."

The A-Class hero, then jumped on top of the desk that he was sitting at and proceeded to preform a series of martial arts moves before striking a martial arts pose and continuing with his sentence "Then aspire to be a fine hero like me!"

Without warning, Saitama's now massive gum bubble popped, covering his whole face in the sticky substance, causing Genos to shout in concern "Sensei!" While Shunshi forced himself to hold back his own laughter at his master's screw up.

After witnessing all of Saitama's carefree attitude towards becoming a 'pro' hero, Sneck' face grew furious and he stated in an almost bloodthirsty tone "As an A-Class hero, I have some influence over the Hero Association's inner-workings. I'll make sure that those who slack off or screw up... Lose points and get demoted! Don't you forget it!"

Not piecing together that this threat was specifically aimed at him, Saitama emotionlessly thought to himself as he pulled the last piece of gum from his face "I wonder what I'll have for dinner tonight?"

As the three of them were leaving the Hero Association testing facility, Shunshi saw one of the heads of the Hero Association, a blond man wearing glasses and reading a book, and said in a calm tone of voice to Saitama and Genos "Uh... I'll catch up with you guys in just a second. I need to speak with someone here about something important." Saitama waved his hand at Shunshi and said "Do what ya want, man."

After bowing to Saitama and Genos, Shunshi quickly approached the Hero Association worker and said to him in a concerned tone "Hello, sir. I'm one of the people who passed the hero exam."

The worker looked up from his book, smiled and asked in a respectful tone of voice "Oh, hello there. Is there something I can help you with?"

Nodding, Shunshi took out his score sheet, showed it to the worker and said in a concerned tone "Well, I scored high enough to be put in A-Class. There must be some kind of mistake. There's no way that someone like me is that strong. I just thought I should tell someone so that... you know... I could be put down at the rank I'm supposed to be at."

The worker looked at Shunshi in confusion for a moment, blinked a few times, and, then, asked in a puzzled tone "You... you WANT to be ranked lower?!... Kid, your scores were the highest out of your entire testing group by a large margin. You're definitely A-Class material. Trust me, it's fine."

Shunshi looked unsure about this, but he eventually put away his score sheet and replied hesitantly "Well... okay, if you say so. I'm still not so sure though."

After leaving the testing facility in confusion, Shunshi ran for a few minutes in order to catch up to Saitama and Genos.

As he caught up to his Sensei and Senpai, Shunshi let them know he was there by asking them in a friendly tone "Did I miss anything interesting?" Looking behind himself, Saitama replied nonchalantly "Nah, Genos just finished telling me about how the Hero Company was formed." Genos, then, corrected Saitama in a respectful manner "Hero 'Association', Master." Saitama looked confused for a split second before saying "Oh right, thanks."

Being overcome with an incredible excitement, Shunshi put his hands together and blurted out "Now that we're all officially registered, we'll be known around the world and even get paid to save people from monsters!... Not that I NEED to get paid to do that or anything." Genos replied to Shunshi's statement in a happy tone "Yes, now we can work with our heads held high."

The blond cyborg, then, turned to Saitama and said in as close as a gleeful tone as he got "Sensei, I guess this now means that Shunshi and I are officially your disciples." Upon hearing Genos say this, Shunshi chimed in excitedly "Oh yeah! That's right! Awesome!" A drop of sweat, then, fell from Saitama's head.

Genos continued to say "Please continue doing the same excellent job you've been doing so far in being our mentor!" Doing his best not to sound afraid, Saitama replied in a hesitant tone "... Yeah."

Both of Saitama's disciples bowed to him and said in respectful tones "Goodnight, Sensei!" Saitama replied calmly "Yeah, see you guys."

As the two disciples of Saitama walked back to their homes, Saitama though in a regretful tone "Crap. Maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to say I'd take disciples... Especially guys like them."

Back at the testing facility. Sneck and the worker with the blond hair glasses were sitting in an office together.

While drinking a cup of coffee, Sneck said to the blond haired worker in an angry tone of voice "Those three newcomers today... Did they really pass the exam? Their attitudes were awful! I'm ranked 38th in A-Class and only one of them seemed to know who I was! Plus they had no idea how hard the world can be. Damn Amateurs! They'll be dirt-napping in no time!"

While looking out the window of the office, the worker stated calmly "No. Shunshi was only two points off from a perfect score on the written exam, and only one point off on the physical exam; he's already highly ranked in A-Class, but based on his results from the physical exam, I expect him to climb up even higher in the ranks fairly quickly. Genos got a perfect score on both the physical and written exams. He's a phenomenal rookie that was given S-Class status right off the bat. The final one, Saitama got horrible scores on the written test, but got a perfect 50 on the physical test. That's the only reason he passed at all. But in practically all the physical tests, he shattered all of the Hero Association's records by inconceivable margins. It's as if there's a god residing inside his body."

Sneck had a completely baffled look on his face before the worker continued to say "Sneck, you've already been outranked by both Genos and Shunshi. And Saitama may outrank you very soon as well."

Bringing an image of Saitama chewing gum into his mind, Sneck thought to himself in disbelief "THAT jackass?!"

Meanwhile, as Saitama was walking back to his home, he was thinking emotionlessly to himself "So, I'm currently ranked in C-Class, but if I get to the top of C-Class I can move up to B-Class with S-Class above even A-Class... I guess Genos and Shunshi are actually pretty amazing... although, I'm not sure this is the kind of hero I wanted to be."

Before Saitama could continue thinking, Sneck jumped out from nowhere and shouted passionately while back-flipping over Saitama "The newcomer seminar isn't over yet!"

After landing in front of the new, weak looking C-Class hero, Sneck took an offensive stance while declaring arrogantly "In this business, there's a thing called rookie crushing. A lot of us pro heroes hate to be outranked, so we crush promising newbies early on... LIKE THIS!" Sneck, then, threw his Snake Fist at Saitama's face, making contact and squishing his cheek, only for Saitama to slap Sneck in his face, planting him into the ground and knocking him out cold. Not having even grown concerned that he was just attacked by another hero, Saitama continued on his walk back home.

Meanwhile, Shunshi had walked back to his parent's house.

As he was walking up the driveway of his home, he used his phone to look up the now updated information on the Hero Association website. Aside from himself, Genos and Saitama, only five others out of the thousands of people that entered in the hero tests today had actually passed; four of them made it into C-Class and one other guy made it into B-Class. Saitama was ranked as number 388 in C-Class, Genos was ranked as number 17 in S-Class and Shunshi himself was ranked as number 13 in A-Class.

As a result of seeing this information, Shunshi thought to himself in a puzzled tone "Genos-Senpai is a S-Class hero now... Is he actually powerful enough to stand alongside heroes like Metal Bat, Tanktop Master, Lightspeed Flash... What the Hell was up with Sensei's score though? He's definitely as strong as any S-Class, but he was put into C-Class. What on Earth happened?!"

When he opened the front door and walked into his parents' house, Shunshi was greeted by his father.

Noticing the tired and confused look on his son's face, Shunshi's father asked him in a superior, yet still concerned tone of voice "You sure took more time than usual to get back home today. Any reason for that?"

Having been taken slightly off-guard by his dad's sudden question, Shunshi replied hesitantly "Oh, uh... My new teacher had me take the hero exam early..."

The face of Shunshi's father lit up a bit with hope when he heard his son say this, causing him to arrogantly ask "So, how bad was your score this time around?" Without wasting a second, Shunshi took out his score sheet and said with disbelieving happiness in his voice "I'm ranked as number 13 in A-class."

Shunshi's father was completely shocked to hear this and quickly swiped the score sheet from his son's hands. After closely examining the sheet of paper, he asked Shunshi in an almost angry tone "Did you cheat, boy?!" Having been visibly offended by this question, Shunshi responded to his dad in a sad and defeated tone "I'd never cheat on something like this. Getting into the Hero Association has been a nearly sacred thing for me!"

Having mostly mostly ignored his son, Shunshi's father turned away from his him and shouted across the house in a panicked tone "Hanja! Come here, right now! This is urgent!"

The two men of the house waited for a moment, until Shunshi's mother came to the front of the house and asked her husband patiently "What is it, Otkan?" Answering her, Otkan stated in a very fearful tone "Shunshi took the hero test and got into A-Class!"

Not sharing her husband's concern, Hanja instead looked incredibly happy, grabbed Shunshi's hands and said to him proudly "Great job, son! You did even better than I thought you could!"

Although he was initially surprised by his mother's praise, Shunshi smiled and replied to her in a happy, yet confused tone of voice "Thanks mom... I think?"

Hanja then turned to Otkan and said excitedly "Let's go out to eat as a celebration!"

Otkan had been shocked silent by Hanja's attitude towards Shunshi becoming a pro hero, as a result, he got absorbed into his own panicked thoughts "Oh God! How did he get all the way to A-Class?! Now the Hero Association is probably gonna call on MY SON to fight Demon level threats! He's gonna die!"

Hanja noticed that Otkan wasn't listening, so she repeated herself in a slightly more stern, yet still falsely friendly tone "Otkan! Let's go out and celebrate Shunshi's accomplishment." Otkan took notice of his wife's almost hostile voice and replied hesitantly "I... I suppose we should."

While his parents were talking, Shunshi had gone and grabbed the backpack that held his costume and said happily "That sounds wonderful, guys! Thank you both so much!" They all then went out to party.

About a half an hour later, Shunshi and his parents were enjoying a meal in one of the corner booths of a fairly fancy restaurant. As they were enjoying their meals, they noticed a commotion coming from the front of the establishment. Looking more closely at the crowed of people who had gathered at the front door, Shunshi quickly realized what was causing the commotion: the A-Class hero, Great Philosopher, ranked as number 13, or rather 14 now, had walked into the restaurant.

The Great Philosopher politely made his way through the crowed of admirers, approached Shunshi at his table, and calmly asked him while reading his large book "Hello there. I understand that you are the new A-Class hero, Shunshi?" Almost overcome with admiration, Shunshi smiled at the A-Class hero in front of him and answered him respectfully "Yes, sir. That's me!"

The Great Philosopher turned a page in his book and asked Shunshi politely "May I speak with you outside?" Without a second of hesitation, Shunshi replied happily "Of course, sir!"

After Shunshi excused himself from the table, the two registered heroes went out to the parking lot of the restaurant in order to talk.

The Great Philosopher looked at Shunshi for a moment, who was just standing at attention and smiling with genuine innocence on his face, before asking calmly "May I see what you look like in your costume?" Nodding his head at the Great Philosopher, Shunshi replied happily "No problem. Just hold on a second." Shunshi then grabbed his backpack and went behind the restaurant. He, then, came back from behind the restaurant and was now wearing his intimating superhero armor.

Desperately wanting to hear his opinion of his costume, Shunshi asked the A-Class hero in a hope filled tone of voice "What do you think, sir? Pretty cool, right?" After looking Shunshi over for a few seconds, The Great Philosopher's formerly stoic face became angry, before he shouted "You look evil!" Not really understanding what he had just been told, Shunshi tilted his head and asked in an almost sad tone of voice "... What?"

All of a sudden, the Great Philosopher stated in a blood thirsty tone of voice "Someone like you doesn't deserve my rank! It's time for some newbie crushing! Three Ton Philosophy!" He quickly swung his book down at Shunshi, smacking him across the face with it, but it only dealt enough damage to him to slightly dent his helmet and draw a drop of blood from his forehead.

After stumbling backwards a foot or two, Shunshi recomposed himself and asked in a mixture of confusion and sadness "What are you doing?! We're both superheroes!" The veteran hero, ignoring the words of his target, threw a punch into Shunshi's stomach, causing him to stumble backwards a little more, but still only causing him some very minor damage.

Now feeling insulted by all this, Shunshi shouted angrily "Stop that! If you really are trying to take me out, then stop holding back so much! I know I'm weak, but you don't need to take it so easy against me."

The Great Philosopher gained a look of shock on his face before saying in an attempt at intimidation "I... You need to quit being a hero or else I break every bone in your body!" Shunshi was completely and utterly baffled by all of this, but replied defiantly "You'd have to kill me if you want me to stop being a hero! Being a superhero is all I've ever wanted in my life, all I ever cared about accomplishing. I want to be a hero!"

The now frightened looking Great Philosopher tried to throw another punch at Shunshi, but the dark-clad hero countered the attack by swiftly deflecting it and throwing his own punch into the A-Class hero's torso, drawing a fair amount of blood from him as he was sent him flying into the building across the street; and knocked out cold in the process.

Having been attacked for selfish reasons by one of the heroes that he admired so much Shunshi's sense of right and wrong was completely thrown out of wack, the world was almost spinning around him. Eventually, in order to calm himself down, he forced himself to think a hesitant thought "He... He must have just been a selfish person that joined the Hero Association for fame... I'm sure that most of the professional heroes aren't like this..."

Shunshi took off his dented helmet and blood smeared gloves, looked at them with discomfort in his eyes, and then put them back into his backpack before calling an ambulance for The Great Philosopher and walking back into the restaurant.

Hanja saw that Shunshi was now wearing most of his costume, so she asked her son in slightly worried sounding tone of voice "Why are you wearing your crime fighting suit?" Not wanting to upset his family, Shunshi thought his answer over for a moment before replying in a happy tone of voice "The Great Philosopher just wanted to see what I looked like in my costume; you know, just to make sure that I looked the part of a hero."

Cocking an eyebrow at this, Otkan asked Shunshi in a curious tone "Well, what did he think?" Shunshi put on a convincing smile and replied "He thought I looked awesome!"

Shunshi and his family then continued to enjoy the rest of their evening as ambulance sirens could be heard arriving across the street.

The next day. Shunshi had come back to Saitama's house and saw that Genos and Saitama were already leaving.

Shunshi walked up to them and asked curiously "Hello Sensei. Senpai. Where are you guys going today?" Almost looking bothered by Shunshi's sudden arrival, Genos replied calmly "Master and I are going off to have a sparring match. You can come along as well if you like."

Initially having an expression of pure shock, Shunshi quickly calmed down and replied to Genos with a small smile "Sure, sounds good to me, Senpai."

Saitama thought as he glanced at his second student's arrival "Is Shunshi gonna try and play-fight too?"

As they jogged towards their destination, Shunshi fearfully thought to himself "What's wrong with Genos-Senpai? I know that he's stronger than me, and he did make it into S-Class and everything, but he's not nearly as strong as the actual S-Classes like Master is. Do you think you'll even survive a sparring match with Saitama-Sensei, Genos?"

The three of them traveled a long distance and eventually reached a barren valley for their match.

As he stretched his arms out, Saitama asked Shunshi "So, before we get started; Shunshi, you seem to know a lot about this whole Hero Association group. I'm curious, so tell me what the whole hero registry thing is about and what exactly do our ranks mean?"

Nodding his head Shunshi replied respectfully "Yes, Sensei. You are currently a C-Class hero, these heroes are considered to be the weakest of all heroes, so you were clearly ranked incorrectly, but this is where most new heroes start out at. The rank after C-Class is B-Class, obviously. B-Class heroes have intermediate strength among those in the hero world. Above B-Class heroes is what I am, an A-Class hero, they are usually amongst the stronger heroes and are usually the most popular as well. And Genos-Senpai is an S-Class hero, the absolute most powerful rank for a hero to receive. Even the weakest S-Class heroes are said to be about as powerful as an emergency military response force. Genos-Senpai is at the bottom of S-Class right now, I am towards the top of A-Class and you are almost at the bottom of C-Class. For now, we are all still listed as Saitama, Genos and Shunshi respectively, but we'll eventually be given hero names."

Puzzled by that last statement, Saitama asked emotionlessly "Hero names? What are those?"

Although he was puzzled by why his master couldn't understand what a hero name, Shunshi still did his best to quickly think of an explanation before explaining calmly "Based upon what we accomplish, what we look like, what we're capable of and what we stand for, we will be given code names that reflect who we are. For example, I might be called the 'Dark Blaster', Genos may be called the 'Fire Cyborg' and, since you always seem to win your fights so easily, you might be called 'One Strike Man'." Saitama crossed his arms at this and stated in slight annoyance "That name sounds kind of boring." Shunshi then continued to say "Something else you may find interesting; aside from getting increased in rank for our accomplishments, we can also get promoted due to popularity. There are a lot of heroes that even have fan clubs."

Saitama interest was peeked by this, but Genos quickly commented in a calm tone "It's not like anyone cares about that." Hearing his Senpai say this, Shunshi looked a little ashamed for even bringing the topic up, but Saitama looked disappointed that Genos shot this topic down so quickly.

Seeing that the conversation had finished, Genos smiled to Saitama and said in a happy tone "Thank you for agreeing to my unreasonable request today, Sensei." Realizing that the match was about to begin, Saitama replied in an uninterested tone while getting some distance between himself and his students "Yeah, well I did promise to make you guys my disciples... Is here good?" Genos quickly replied "Yes!" Saitama then continued to ask "So we're just having a practice bout right? Not real fighting?" Genos replied with a cold look "That's what I had in mind, but now that we're actually here I want to go all out, so I'll fight for real. Now here are the rules: Dodge any attacks you are able to dodge; take it seriously, no fooling around; Don't hold back and keep going until one of us can't keep fighting anymore... Shunshi, if you feel the desire to participate at any moment during the bout, then feel free to join in as well."

Shunshi replied while making sure his own posture reflected a soldier standing at attention "Yes, Senpai. Thank you, Senpai!" He then began to sweet as he thought nervously "Should I even TRY joining in on something like this?"

Genos then turned to face his teacher; as he did this, his cyborg parts lit up with fire just beneath the surface. Genos then took a combat stance and said to Saitama "Please grant my request, master!"

Deciding to make the first move, Genos' shoulders opened up and let out, what looked like miniature jets. The small jets quickly propelled their owner towards Saitama so that he could launch a jump kick at the incredibly strong hero, although the baldy easily dodged the attack by bending backwards. Genos then used small bursts of fire from his palms to turn himself around and throw a spin kick at Saitama, but he just bent forward and dodged yet another attack. The blond cyborg then started shooting bursts of fire from his back to propel himself into the air. Saitama just gave a very silly looking smile at how enthusiastic his student was being. Genos then used his shoulder jets to launch himself at the ground as fast as possible while delivering an axe kick. All of a sudden, Saitama moved so fast that he had vanished from Genos' sight, causing the cyborg's kick to hit the ground instead, and causing a wave of boulders to form, which Shunshi just barely dodged by jumping on top of one of them.

While just barely avoiding this wave of destruction, Shunshi thought in a fearful and awe-struck tone "Holy crap! I guess Senpai got upgraded... Oh screw it! If I don't train with them, then I'll never get stronger!"

As Shunshi shouted in a determined voice "I'm gonna join in the fight too!" Genos shot off a huge beam of fire at Saitama, who was falling through the sky. Having seen the attack coming, Saitama swiftly grabbed onto a boulder that was in the air next to him and jumped off of it so that he could launch himself towards the ground and dodge the fire blast, which punched a hole in the top of a nearby plateau.

Seeing the level of destruction that Genos was dishing out Shunshi nervously thought to himself "Oh my God... Get your head in the game, man!" However, Saitama's reaction was a relieved "That was close, I almost burned my costume again."

All of a sudden, Saitama saw dozens of Shunshi's light balls quickly flying towards him, so he casually moved his body whenever he was in danger of getting hit by one of the attacks, this resulted in volley of explosions to go off behind him.

A, now white flame covered, Shunshi rushed at Saitama and threw a flurry of punches with one or two kicks thrown into the combo as well; Saitama effortlessly dodged all of these attacks.

As he saw Saitama effortlessly dodging all of Shunshi's attacks, Genos angrily yelled "I need more speed!" He, then, slammed his fists on the ground, this caused electricity to cover his arms as rings of energy went down his forearms. Genos now seemed to be floating in the air as his shoulder jets were firing three times the amount of flames as before. The cyborg then vanished and rushed towards Saitama; Saitama took notice of this and leapt away from Shunshi at nearly invisible speed, who got knocked away by the shockwaves of his seniors' fast movements.

Saitama and Genos started colliding in the air with lightning fast movements, before crashing back onto the ground and rushing towards the wall of a plateau, as well as crashing into each other on the way there.

Saitama was rushing backwards up the rock face while Genos chased after him and fired off his 'Machine-Gun Blow' in an attempt to hit him, tearing up the wall of the rock face as a result. Genos quickly lost sight of Saitama and thought in near despair "What the-? Have I just been chasing his afterimage this whole time?!"

In order to relocated his master so that he could continue fighting, Genos quickly scanned the area around himself and saw that Saitama was back in the canyon below, effortlessly blocking Shunshi's 'Light Kie Machine-Gun' with one finger, all while still keeping up his emotionless expression. Shunshi gave up on this attack and quickly decided to kick at Saitama's feet in an attempt to trip him, but he just jumped above his student's attack.

Genos took this as an opportunity to try and rush Saitama as he was air-born and throw a punch into his face, but Saitama saw him coming from a mile away and swiftly placed his palm on the wrist of the arm Genos was using to throw the punch, spun around in the air and sent Genos flying towards the ground with only the wind-force of his movements.

Genos managed to land on his feet and then turned towards Saitama as dozens of guns came out of his arms, before he shouted "Incinerate!" All of the smaller guns shot out small fire beams that combined together with Genos' main arm cannons in order to make a blast of fire that was more than ten times the size of the shot off earlier in the fight. Genos thought confidently as the cannon of flames shot out of his arms "I got him this time. Sensei will have take me more seriously now-" Saitama then appeared behind Genos and tapped on his student's shoulder. As Genos turned to face him, Saitama poked his finger into the young cyborg's face and said with a smile "Got you. Now I just need to get Shun-" Genos quickly turned off his fire blast and took another swing at Saitama that had enough wind force behind it to launch a small boulder through the air, although Saitama, once again, moved out of the way of the attack.

As Saitama was getting his balance back after having moved a few feet behind Genos, Shunshi jumped over his Senpai while holding a light ball that was bigger than what he used on Kabuto. As he threw the large light ball, Shunshi passionately shouted "WHITE SUN EXPLOSION!" Before the ball came anywhere near him, Saitama had vanished once again. The Explosion then went off and created a crater that was five times the size of the ball itself.

Before Shunshi could process what had just happened, Saitama jumped at him from behind, grabbed his student's cape and very lightly threw him at Genos, knocking them both on their asses.

Saitama's students quickly got back on their feet, with Genos asking angrily "Sensei, have you forgotten about the rules of the bout? Dodge any attacks you are able to dodge; take it seriously, no fooling around; Don't hold back and keep going until one of us can't keep fighting anymore." Genos then thought in almost confusion "Even master Saitama doesn't know the secret to his own power. This fight may give me some insight into it."

Having had enough of Saitama's casual nature, Genos said sternly as his robotic parts started radiating small flames "Show me no mercy!"

Shunshi saw the determined look on his Senpai's face and quickly took an offensive stance, he, then, turned back on his body's field of white flames, while standing at Genos' side and declaring in a determined voice "That goes for me as well!"

Saitama just continued to show his emotionless stare to the two of them, except with the smallest tint of pondering mixed in with it. All of a sudden, the bald hero moved right into his students' faces so quickly that neither of them were even able to realize that he had moved, at least at first. After about a split second, Genos and realized that Saitama was standing in front of them, so Genos threw out a side thrust kick while Shunshi threw a front stance punch, but Saitama dodged their combined attack by once more moving at impossible speeds and then reappeared behind the two younger heroes.

Neither of them being able to understand what's happening, both Genos and Shunshi asked in confusement "What the?" But before either of them could react to their teacher's new position, Saitama, who had a more serious expression on his face now, threw a punch at the two of them. The aura coming off of Saitama as he threw this punch made it so that his students could only think of one word "Death."

Saitama stopped his fist just short of actually hitting his disciples, but the wind force from the attack picked up a cloud of rocks and dirt, blew back Genos' hair and forced Shunshi onto his ass. Saitama then lightly tapped Genos's face and said in a friendly tone "I'm starving. Time for lunch. Let's go have udon noodles." Not knowing what else to say Genos just replied to his master in a mix of fear and awe "Yeah."

After looking over his shoulder, Saitama said to Genos "Go help Shunshi stand up, the guy won't stop shaking." Sure enough, Shunshi was too shocked by what had just happened to him to stand back up on his own.

As Genos went to assist his junior up, he saw something terrifying; Shunshi was confused by the face Genos was making, so he looked behind himself to see what his Senpai was so frightened of. Shunshi then saw that the hole blasted in the top of the mountain had been overtaken by a new, much larger 'hole' that was made from the wind force of Saitama's punch. This 'hole' had completely torn the mountain in half.

Both Genos and Shunshi thought in in a mixture of admiration and shock as their pupils fully dilated at this sight "I'll do whatever it takes to get stronger, but I don't think I could ever see myself approaching Sensei's power... Not in this life time, anyway."

After walking for a bit, Saitama realized that neither of his students were following him, so he turned around and asked them curiously "Do you guys not like udon or something?" Not wanting Saitama to leave without him, Genos quickly finished helping Shunshi stand back up and answered attentively "No. I'm coming, Sensei." Shunshi was about to follow along as well, but a realization quickly hit him that stopped him dead in his tracks.

Forming a sentence in his head as fast as he could, Shunshi stated in a respectful tone to Saitama "Uh... I do like udon, Saitama-Sensei, but I just realized that I haven't gone out for my daily crime patrol in a while, and now that I'm officially registered... what I mean to say is... May I go do that instead?" Saitama waved his hand in an unconcerned manner and replied "Do whatever, dude. I'll just see ya tomorrow, I guess." Happy to have been given permission to go off, Shunshi bowed to his master and quickly ran off as Saitama and Genos went out for udon.

Later that night; Saitama and Genos were sitting at an udon shop, while Shunshi was in the next city over, trying to see if he could find any criminals or monsters to fight.

While they were eating, Saitama smiled one of his funny smiles and said to Genos "I'm glad you like udon." Genos simply replied "Yes, I'm not very picky." Saitama then rested his head on his hand and said "Well, I'm kinda low on funds right now... Guess it's a good thing that I didn't have to pay for Shunshi's meal too."

Saitama's gaze then shifted towards the menu up front, followed by him saying with a smile "Hey, Genos, how about another match?" In order to make his suggestion clear Saitama pointed towards what he was talking about, a contest sign at the restaurant that said if you could finish a massive bowl of spicy udon, than you would win 50,000 yen. Agreeing to this match, Genos and Saitama told the chef that they wanted to take the challenge and then they waited for their dish to be prepared.

Meanwhile. In City-C. Shunshi had just finished a heated battle with three, eight and a half foot tall ogre-like creatures. Due to all the fighting his cape had been torn down the middle, the jaw of his helmet had been ripped off, and part of his suit's chest piece had been destroyed, but the three monsters had all been beaten and burnt to death by Shunshi's martial arts and kie.

As soon as he had finished catching his breath in the glow of victory, Shunshi looked around himself at the dead monster and thought in minor confusion "So... am I supposed to report this now? That's how I get points to move up in the ranks, right?"

Wanting to make sure he had his facts straight, Shunshi took out his phone and looked through the Hero Association website until he found out how he was supposed to report his hero actions. The instructions stated that if the fight wasn't public knowledge, then all a hero had to do was report the fight to the nearest Hero Association facility. Shunshi quickly looked through all of the known monsters on the website, and it turned out that these creatures were all Tiger level threats of a known species of monster. He, then, put his phone away, tossed all three of the monsters onto his back and started heading towards the nearest Hero Association facility that he knew of.

On his way there, he happened across a burglar busting out through the window of a pawn shop. The burglar stopped in his tracks and just starred at the man dressed in frightening, black, full body armor, who just happened to be carrying three large, dead monsters on his back. The burglar quickly started running away from this scary scene, but was hit in the back of the head by a small stone, courtesy of a flick of the wrist by Shunshi, which knocked him out.

Shunshi quickly picked back up the monster that he had dropped in order to throw the small stone, walked over to the unconscious criminal and picked him up by grabbing the man's shirt between his teeth. He, then, continued on his way to the Hero Association.

Back with Saitama and Genos. Saitama had just given up trying to eat all the spicy udon that he was given, but Genos easily scarfed it all down as heat blew out of his arms.

After he had finished eating, Genos turned to the cook and asked calmly "Is that all?" Much to the shock of the cook and the rest of the people eating there.

Realizing what his student had just accomplished, a somewhat disappointed looking Saitama stated to Genos "Man, you're awesome."

The next moment, much to the even greater shock of everyone eating at this shop, excluding Saitama and Genos, the top ranked A-Class hero, the most popular hero in the entire world, Sweet Mask casually walked into the establishment and towards Genos and Saitama's table.

Sweet Mask smiled at Genos and said "You must be Genos." Both Saitama and Genos turned their heads curiously when Sweet Mask said this. The A-Class hero then continued in a friendly tone "I'm Sweet Mask, the top ranked A-Class hero. I'd like to talk to you."

Saitama looked somewhat concerned and curious when Sweet Mask introduced himself, while all the female patrons started swooning over him.

Not being one to easily be impressed, Genos simply asked himself "Talk? About what?" Saitama whispered to his cyborg student "He might be a rookie crusher. Be careful, Genos." Genos replied to his master in a slightly more serious tone "I see. Please wait here, Master."

The young cyborg quickly stood up and replied to Sweet Mask's offer of conversation "Very well. I was just thinking about taking a walk to digest my lunch." Sweet Mask simply smiled in a friendly manner at this.

The two high ranking Heroes walk out to the side of the restaurant, and Sweet Mask quickly asked Genos in a kind tone "I understand an exception was made for you to be given S-Class status right off the bat." As he started to form a scowl, Genos replied with hostility in his voice "What of it?!"

Gaining a sly grin Sweet mask answered "A hero must be always be a beautiful symbol of justice. That is my philosophy. This is especially true if you're a S-Class hero." Instead of giving him a response, Genos just starred the blue haired hero down for a moment.

Sweet mask let out a small giggle at Genos' attitude before saying in a friendly tone "Come on. There's no need to glare at me. I came all the way here just to see you. How was the Hero exam?" Genos replied coldly "It was nothing but rubbish. An exam like that is a waste of time." Sweet Mask looked a little surprised by this response, at least for a moment, before he switched back over to a grin.

Being an individual who's as quick to violence as he is, Genos stated in an clearly angry tone "If you came here to fight, then let's get on with it. This too, is a waste of time." The S-Class started walking towards the A-Class in an aggressive manner, but the A-Class put his hand up, prompting Genos to stop walking.

Sweet Mask then said "Being hot blooded is fine, but if you take it too far... you'll get burnt." This caused a moment of silence between the two of them.

Choosing to let things go, Sweet Mask shrugged casually and said to Genos "I'll forgive you're criticism of the Association. Thank you for your time." He then walked passed Genos while placing his hand on the young man's shoulder and saying casually "I welcome you to the team. We expect great things from you... Genos."

A minute later; Genos had walked back into the restaurant and, as he sat back down at his table, he was asked by Saitama "Man, the top ranking A-Class hero personally came to crush you. You really are deserving of S-Class!"

Wanting to make sure his mater had all the facts straight, Genos corrected him while shaking his head "That's not it. He just came here... to welcome me." Having no idea what this meant, Saitama asked Genos in confusion "Huh? What's that mean?"

Before Genos could give Saitama an answer, three of the woman who were eating at the restaurant came up to Genos and asked him nervously "Excuse me? You're friends with Sweet Mask, right?... May I shake your hand?!" When Genos agreed to this, it caused all minimal amount of confusion and jealousy to form on Saitama's face.

After they had paid for their meals, the student and teacher walked back to their homes from the restaurant, with Saitama commenting in a confused and disappointed tone "Man. S-Class and C-Class heroes sure get treated differently." Saitama then looked at 50,000 yen worth of coupons that Genos was given for winning the spicy noodle challange and said in a further disappointment "If you think about it, this is sort of like fake money." Due to money not having been an issue for him sense he met Dr. Stench, Genos just looked at his coupons for a moment, not sure what to say.

Due to this ultimately not bothering him, Saitama shrugged and said "Whatever. Now we're even with a win and a loss each. And now we're both professional heroes. Let's do our best, OK?" Genos put his money away and replied calmly to this "Yes."

As the two walked along a bridge, Genos stopped walking while underneath a street lamp, as he thought about his strange encounter with Sweet Mask. He, then, said "Sensei."

Saitama turned around and asked "What's up?" His student replied "I'll be back later." Saitama just gave a small, friendly smile, waved goodbye and said "Oh, OK. See ya later." Genos bowed to Saitama and said "Yes. Goodbye.

Meanwhile. At City-C's Hero Association headquarters. Shunshi walked into the front lobby, with one more extra ogre monster on his back, as well as another burglar clenched in his teeth.

Shunshi quickly dropped all of the criminals he had taken down into the middle of the lobby, and said with a smile to the terrified people at the front desk "Hello. I am the registered hero, Shunshi, and I am here to report my hero work! I took down four Tiger Level threats and caught two C-Class criminals on the way here. Anything else I need to do now?"

One woman at the front desk, after a moment of stunned silence, replied with a shocked expression on her face "You... You didn't need to bring them directly here... You just needed to leave the corpses of the monsters on the streets for the city clean up crews to take care of, and then take the criminals to jail... After that, you just fill out a report here and you're given points accordingly... Are you new to this or something, sir?" Shunshi looked completely humiliated and replied nervously "... Sort of... Sorry. After I fill out the report, I'll just take these crooks to jail and dispose of the monsters' bodies."

Having become a little frustrated with the cluelessness of the young man in front of her, the woman forced a smile onto her face and replied "Just place their bodies outside and we'll call over the cleanup crews..."

Nodding his head, Shunshi quickly filled out a hero report and, just as he was about to pick up the dead monsters' bodies, Sweet Mask walked into the building, shocking everyone in the room.

Sweet Mask approached an awe-struck Shunshi, smiled, and said to him "I heard that people saw you heading over here. You're the first new A-Class hero in nine months. I came hear to welcome you to the Hero Association. I can see that you've already started putting fourth a good deal of effort into your hero work." Sweet Mask then offered Shunshi a handshake, which he eagerly excepted and said nervously "Th- thank you for the honor, sir! I'ts great to meet you in person!"

Being pleased Shunshi's attitude, Sweet Mask thought in an almost proud tone of voice "He seems to understand how the hero world works much better than Genos."

Breaking off the handshake, Sweet Mask said in a friendly, yet commanding tone to Shunshi "I came here to make sure that you understand my philosophy on heroism. A hero must be always be a beautiful symbol of justice. Since you're A-Class, you need to be a fine example of this!"

Overcome with excitement, Shunshi bowed to the highest ranked A-Class hero and said happily "I'll do my best, Sweet Mask, sir."

While he was bowing, Sweet Mask put his hand on Shunshi's head and said in a, somewhat, parental tone "I expect nothing less of you. Good luck in your future endeavors" The highest ranked A-Class hero then left in a cool, yet casual manner.

As he watched Sweet Mask leave, Shunshi felt the spot on his head that he placed his hand on, before thinking to himself in a giddy tone "I know I was given A-Class by mistake, but I'm glad that this gave me the chance to meet Sweet Mask!"

Annoyed that there were still monster corpses in the middle of the lobby, the woman at the front desk asked Shunshi in an impatient tone "Can you take care of all these monsters and crooks already?!" Flinching in shock, Shunshi turned around and said in an embarrassed tone "Oh, sorry about that. I'll get right on it."


	5. Chapter 5: The Monsters

Three days after his first night of professional hero work, Shunshi hadn't really come across any other criminals or monsters during his daily patrols and was now thinking to himself in a bored tone as he walked to Saitama's house "Slow hero work this week. I was hoping for... I don't know; some more people to help and wrongs to right, I guess."

Shunshi was wearing his superhero outfit as he was walking down the street and, before he reached Saitama's place, he was stopped by a group of three teenage boys.

One of the three teenagers ran up to Shunshi and said to him in an excited tone "Hey! You're that new hero with the bad-ass costume!"

Growing a little hopeful that he might have something to do, Shunshi replied to the boy in a calm tone "Hey there. Do you guys need some help or something?" Shaking his head, the teenager replied nervously to this question "Um... no. We just thought you had a pretty cool outfit is all."

Realizing that these boys didn't need any help, and remembering that he was in a hurry to get to his master's home, Shunshi politely said to this group of civilians "Oh. Why thank you for the complement, but if you don't need anything from me, than I'll be on my way."

One of the boys grabbed Shunshi's shoulder as he was turning away from them and said with a small amount of panic in his voice "Wait!"

Being a person who doesn't like to be stopped mid-stride, Shunshi turned around around and asked in a bit of an impatient tone "What is it?!"

The shortest of the teenagers took out his phone, while the tallest one took out a notebook and asked Shunshi nervously "Can we get a picture with you and autographs?" Being a little puzzled by this sudden request, Shunshi tilted his head and replied "Huh?"

Noticing his confusion, one of the kids explained to Shunshi in a happy tone "My little brother thinks you're outfit is awesome, so he'd love it if I showed him a picture of you complete with an autograph."

After a few minutes of an impromptu photo-shoot and awkwardly trying to manage holding a pen while wearing gauntlets, Shunshi had fulfilled the teenagers' request and waved goodbye to them before continuing on his way to Saitama's. As he walked, he thought to himself with a bit of concern "Man, I've only been in the Hero Association for a few days, and I only did any Hero during one of those days, but I'm already semi-famous. This is so weird... Those kids wouldn't shut up about my costume... Is that all people are gonna think of me? The guy with the cool costume?... Hope I find some more hero work to do soon."

When Shunshi arrived at Saitama's house, he knocked on the door and was eventually let in by his master. Upon entering the apartment, Shunshi saw Genos quickly and efficiently doing Saitama's dishes. As he watched his Senpai doing simple chores, Shunshi thought to himself "I wonder why Genos-Senpai thinks living with Sensei will help him with his training?"

Cut to two days ago: Shunshi had shown up at his master's home in order to do his daily training and saw Genos observing things around their master's home while taking notes of every little thing he saw.

Shunshi approached Genos and asked him curiously "Hello Senpai. What are you doing?" Genos took his face away from his notes for a moment and replied nonchalantly "Sensei has allowed me to live here with him, so I have taken this opportunity to take notes of his living habits in hopes that it will reveal the secret to his strength."

Shunshi was shocked to hear this and thought in surprise "He's LIVING with Sensei?!... I guess if that helps him with his training then it's fine... but-"

His thoughts stopped when he turned to look at Saitama, who was now just sitting on the couch and watching the news. With almost a hint of jealousy in his voice, Shunshi asked his teacher "So, Sensei. Why did you invite Genos-Senpai to come live with you?" Not bothering to even look away from the television, Saitama replied in his usual emotionless tone "I didn't invite him. He's paying me rent money to stay here."

Shunshi was even further surprised by this, a little creeped out in fact, but he decided to just let it go so that he could focus on doing his workout regiment for the day.

Back in the present: about an hour and a half after Shunshi arrived; Saitama was relaxing and reading manga, Shunshi had changed into civilian clothes and was doing his training, and Genos was intensely observing Saitama while also writing down notes.

Just as Shunshi was about to leave for the running part of his training, he received a phone call from the Hero Association on his cell phone.

Hoping for an assignment, Shunshi quickly answered his phone and asked in an excited tone "Hello?!" The Hero Association worker on the other end of the phone asked calmly "Is this the A-Class hero, Shunshi?" The excited hero replied "I'm him." The worker, then, continued to say "We have need of your assistance at C-City's HQ. Please be there as quickly as possible." He, then, hung up on his end.

After putting his phone away, Shunshi turned around and, just barely bottling up his excitement, he said to his master and Senpai "Guys! The Hero Association just called me in for some work." Saitama gained a small amount of interest on his face when e heard this and replied "Sounds interesting. Good luck." Genos took his attention away from his notes for a moment so that he could say "I hope that you get good experience from this, my junior." The cyborg, then, went back to his notes.

Quickly changing back into his superhero outfit, Shunshi ran to C-City's Hero Association headquarters as fast as he could, and was awe-struck by what he saw when he entered.

In the lobby of the building were the A-Class heroes Blue Fire, Tanktop Vegetarian, Stinger, Smile Man, and Forte. Shunshi didn't know what to say in this situation, but he was even more shocked by the hero sitting on the floor in the back of the room, the S-Class hero, Watchdog Man.

The group of heroes quickly took notice of Shunshi, so the A-Classers decided to come over and greet him, while Watchdog Man just sat stationary, seemingly having not even noticed that a new hero had arrived.

Stinger was the first one to walked up to Shunshi, and as such, he said to him in a happy tone "Hey there! You're that new A-Class hero right? I'm A-Class rank 12, Stinger. Nice to meet you." He, then, offered the awe-struck Shunshi a handshake, which he quickly excepted while replying in an ecstatic tone of voice "Nice to meet you too, sir! I'm ranked 13 in A-Class. I've heard of you before, I've actually been a bit of a fan of your's." Stinger smiled and asked in a proud tone "Really? Thanks! I heard that you took down some monsters and criminals on your first day of being a registered hero; nice work. I'm sure you'll keep doing fine in the hero biz, but I'll warn you, it'll be hard to keep up with my popularity."

Stinger's friendliness surprised Shunshi, but before he could say anything else, Tanktop Vegetarian nudged Stinger out of the way and said in a proud tone while keeping his fists rested on his waist and making sure to use his massive stature to tower of Shunshi as much as possible "Whatever. I'm A-Class rank 10, Tanktop Vegetarian. Remember this face newbie, it's the face of your superior! You may have had a good start on your hero work, but don't let that get to your head, little man." Shrinking back a bit at the tanktopper's massive stature, Shunshi replied meekly "I hadn't planed on it, sir..."

Smile Man was the next one to introduce himself, but all he did was wear an emotionless face and wave his hand while saying "Hello. I'm A-Class rank 28, Smile Man." Shunshi was confused by Smile Man's strangely calm demeanor, but he still replied in a polite tone "Hello, sir."

Blue Fire was the next one to approach Shunshi and said in a cold tone of voice "I'm ranked 8 in A-Class; the name's Blue Fire. Just make sure you do your job as a hero and not allow evil to prosper." Shunshi replied attentively "Of course, sir!"

Being the last one to introduce himself, Forte walked up to Shunshi and said to him in a confident tone "I'm ranked 32 in A-Class, Forte... How old are you, guy?" Shunshi replied in a respectful, yet meek tone "I'm twenty years old, sir." Smirking slightly at this, Forte stated in a slightly aggressive tone "Alright, you may outrank me, but I'm still older than you, so that makes me your superior."

Shunshi seemed a bit concerned by Forte's attitude and replied "Um... Okay, Forte... but we're both heroes, so does who is who's superior really matter, sir?" Forte was more than a little surprised by Shunshi's mannerisms and thought almost fearfully "How does a guy who's as highly ranked as him and who wears such a scary outfit act so... meek?"

He, then, let out fake cough and replied to Shunshi's question while trying to keep up his superior attitude "Y- you're right... That doesn't really matter. Just, uh... testing you is all."

Having been left relatively unphased by this, Shunshi's gaze shifted over to Watchdog Man, who was still just sitting on the floor and looking at a wall. He then asked the other heroes "Is mister Watchdog Man okay?" Quickly thinking of an answer, Smile Man replied to Shunshi while gesturing over to the S-Class hero "From what I've seen of him, he's a bit anti-social." Shunshi tilted his head and, being very surprised to hear this, replied "Oh... Um... okay?"

Since he had overheard everything with his dog-like hearing, Watchdog Man thought to himself while looking at the A-Class heroes "Why is that guy in the cloak asking about me?"

A few minutes later, after everyone had finished conversing amongst each other, the worker that called them all here in the first place walked into the room and said to the heroes in a calm, yet respectful tone "Thank you for arriving, everyone."

Not wasting a moment, Tanktop Vegetarian stormed over to the worker and asked aggressively "Why have you been making high ranking heroes like us wait around for so long; especially Blue Fire, Watchdog Man, and me?!"

The somewhat short worker looked up a bit nervously at the large and muscular hero, he then adjusted his tie and said to him in a calming tone "You were all called in because we just needed a small team of highly ranked heroes to deal with a group of monsters. Please calm down and let me explain."

All of the heroes then took seats near Watchdog Man while the worker recomposed himself and said to them "Alright, now on to the specifics of why you were all called here; there is a nest of Tiger level monsters lead by a Demon level monster that are hiding out in an abandoned, underground parking lot within this city. Mister Shunshi here actually took out a few of them himself a few days ago. They are an ogre-like species of monsters and we believe that the Demon level threat that is leading them is also the one producing them. Your jobs are simple: make your way through the nest of monsters, exterminating them as you go, and then kill the monster that was leading them all."

Allowing a big smirk to form on his face, Stinger said confidently to the worker "Sounds simple enough. Just show us the way." The worker nodded his head and replied "Of course. By now, a limo should have arrived outside that will take you all to the parking lot that I told you about."

Knowing that they had been told all of the information that he needed, Watchdog Man stood up on all fours and said his first sentence of the day "Alright. Let's go, everyone."

As the A-Class Heroes were walking behind Watchdog Man, Forte thought to himself while watching the S-Class walk on all fours "Huh, I've never seen Watchdog Man in person before... I never realized just how dog-like he really is."

All of the heroes piled into the limo that was outside of the building and were enjoying the luxury ride, especially Tanktop Vegetarian, but Shunshi still didn't feel as if he were worthy of being gathered with such highly ranked heroes like them.

When they arrived about half a mile away from the monsters' nest, the limo driver said in a frightened tone to the heroes that he was escorting "This is as close as I was ordered to take you all. Here's a map that will show you all the way to the monster nest." He then handed Blue Fire the map.

Blue Fire looked at the map for a moment and replied stoically "Alright. Thank you. We can handle it from here. Let's go everyone." On his command, all of the heroes got out of the luxury car, almost like soldiers, and started on their way to the monsters' nest.

On the way to the battle, Shunshi approached Smile Man and asked him "Hey, mister Smile Man. Can I ask you a question?" Smile Man replied emotionlessly "You just did, but you can ask another one if you want." Shunshi laughed a little bit at Smile Man's joke, he assumed it was a joke anyway, and asked "Thank you. My question is, if the Hero Association was able to call in Watchdog Man, then why did they bother to call the rest of us in as well? He's an S-Class hero after all. Can't he handle this on his own?" Thinking it over quickly, Smile Man replied with a small amount of seriousness in his voice "I'm guessing there are a LOT of those ogre things, so they called us A-Class heroes in so that Watchdog Man won't tire himself out from fighting off the Tiger level monsters, and be able to just handle the Demon level monster. It's admittedly simple, but it's still strategic thinking I'd say."

Just having become even more confused, Shunshi asked with a puzzled look in his eyes "But couldn't any of you guys handle the De-" Before Shunshi could finish his sentence, Blue Fire shouted to the group "We're hear!"

In front of the group of heroes was a tunnel leading underground. The concrete that the tunnel was made from seemed to be falling apart, but it was now supported by pillars of steel and wood that not only seemed to be hastily made, but also just recently added. The group started making their way into the monster nest and saw that the whole place was lit up with make shift torches lining the walls.

After searching around the monster nest for a few minutes and finding nothing, the heroes started wondering if the monsters had cleared out of there already.

Forte stuck his hands into his hoodie pockets and said in a somewhat disappointed tone to the group "Looks like the monsters ran off with their tails between their legs. Too bad, I was hoping to test out some new dance moves." Just as he said this, two of the ogre monsters that the worker told them about came around the corner.

There was an awkward moment of silence between the heroes and the monsters for quite a while, due to neither side expecting to have seen the other. Realization of the situation suddenly hit both groups, resulting in both sides jumping away from the other.

After landing heavily on the ground, one of the ogres said to the other one while smiling a toothy smile "Look brother! Some stupid humans and their dog walked into our home. Let's eat 'em!"

Before the ogre that spoke could try to attack the heroes, the other ogre put his arm in front of him and said in a frightened tone "Hold on! I think these guys are from the Hero Association... and I think that 'dog' is the S-Class hero, Watchdog Man! We can't win this on our own; let's go alert the others! Run!"

The two monsters quickly turned away, ran back around the corner and started moving as fast as their legs would carry them, while yelling about the heroes that had shown up.

Watchdog Man started giving chase, which quickly prompted the rest of the heroes to follow as well.

Before the monsters got far, Blue Fire flipped his hands around each other and thrusted his arm forward while shooting off a stream of blue flames. The fire hit one of the monsters and quickly immolated it while the other one practically shrieked in fear, and started running faster and screaming louder.

Seeing an opportunity, Smile Man seemed to pull a large mallet out of nowhere and tossed it like a boomerang, hitting the monster in its head and knocking it too the floor. Before the monster could get back up, Watchdog Man jumped onto its back, took out his claws and quickly ripped its head clean off.

The group walked over to the monsters' corpses, Smile Man picked up his hammer, and then Tanktop Vegetarian asked in a cocky tone of voice as he folded his arms "So, where's the rest of these things? I didn't even get a chance to warm up my knuckles." Answering his question, a monstrous voice came from the dark and said in a sadistic tone to the heroes "We're right here, meat-snacks!"

Suddenly, more torches lit up, reveling over fifty more of these monsters surrounding the heroes.

Without so much as an expression of doubt, Watchdog Man was about to go and fight these ogres, but Stinger put his spear on the ground in front of him and said in a confident tone to the highly ranked hero "Just go find the Demon level monster. We'll handle these chumps!" When Stinger said this, Forte thought nervously "We will?! But there's so many of them!"

Watchdog Man nodded to Stinger, ran up to the monsters, jumped over them and then kept running deeper into the abandoned parking lot.

One of the ogres turned around and shouted angrily at Watchdog Man as he ran off "Ya won't get away from us that easily, flea-bag!"

As the ogre was looking away, Stinger shouted passionately "Giga Thrust!" Stinger and his bamboo spear suddenly shot forward and put a gigantic hole in one of the monsters, killing it.

While he stood on top of the monster's corpse, Stinger took up a battle pose while confidently exclaiming "The rest of us are all still A-Class heroes! So I suggest you focus on the task at hand! Namely, us killing all of you!" Shunshi and the rest of the A-Class heroes then sprung into action.

Forte ran up to one of the monsters, while putting on his head phones and playing music so loudly that it could be clearly heard by anyone standing close to him. The ogre he ran up to tried to punch him, but Forte danced around the attack, resulting in the ogre cracking through a few inches of the cement beneath them. The dancing hero started delivering attacks to the monsters in rhythm to the song he was listening to, attacks that were strong enough to draw blood from the large creature, while also dodging most of the attacks thrown at him, but still taking a couple of nasty hits.

Despite taking a few injuries, Forte was thinking that he could win this fight, but another of the ogres quickly jumped into the fight as well, in order to help his brother, and the two started overwhelming the musical hero; however, Smile Man came to Forte's aid and smashed his mallet into the face of the second ogre, pretty much collapsing its skull and knocking it away. Forte and Smile Man then continued fighting while watching each others' backs.

Tanktop Vegetarian was fighting four of these monsters at once. He was using a combination of tackles and punches to fight them, and quickly smashed one of their rib cages in, only for another one of the ogres to jump in and take the dead one's place, this caused some frustration for the tanktopper, but he still showed very little battle damage and was managing to overpower any monsters that came his way.

Stinger was fighting six of these creatures at a time while nimbly jumping and spinning his bamboo spear around to cut and stab at the monsters. Stinger used what he called a 'Double Giga Thrust' to kill two more of these creatures at once, but then three more came up and joined in on the attack on him. Despite his agility, a few of the monsters that Stinger was cutting up were still hitting him, but he seemed to be winning his fights with little difficulty regardless.

Blue Fire was dealing with about thirty percent of the monsters by himself, but despite the large amount of ogres that he was fighting against, he still had no stress on his face and was just shooting his blue flames at any monster that he saw. Any of the ogres that got too close to him in an attempt at fighting back were quickly hit with single strike kicks and punches, they then got their bodies burnt up before they could hope to recover from the blows.

Shunshi was handling about another forty percent of these monsters on his own and was confused as to why the other A-Class heroes were having any trouble at all with these ogres, while simultaneously wondering why these creatures seemed to be much weaker than the ogres that he had fought four days ago.

One of the ogres tried to punch Shunshi in his torso, but he dodged the attack by preforming a back flip while also kicking another one of them in its jaw, resulting in the lower half of the creature's being removed from its body. After landing on his feet, six more of these monsters tried to attack Shunshi, but he covered his body in white flames and tossed a barrage of his light balls at the creatures, and, much to the young hero's surprise, the explosions form his attacks took out all six of them.

Realizing what was going on, Shunshi thought out loud in amazement "I don't think these guys are weaker, I think I'm stronger!"

One of the ogres took this moment to punch the distracted Shunshi in the back of his head, causing him to stagger forward, but not really injuring him all that much, if at all.

Shunshi turn to face the monster that hit him, while smiling inside of his helmet and thinking "Maybe Master's training really is helping me! I've never gotten this much stronger in such a short amount of time!" He, then, ran straight at the now frightened group of monsters and punched one of them into a wall, killing it in the process.

After a few more minutes of fighting, all but one of the ogre monsters were dead, while the corpses of its brothers were littered around it.

Both Forte and Smile Man were covered in bumps, bruises and cuts, but they were still cognitive enough to walk and put up a weak fight if needed. Stinger, who's pointy hair had fallen flat, and Tanktop Vegetarian were both a little scuffed up and winded, but were still uninjured enough to give it about an eighty percent effort in a fight if they really needed to. Shunshi and Blue Fire were both standing confidently and had both been left practically untouched by the fight.

The monster was on his hands and knees while crying for forgiveness from the heroes "PLEASE! Don't kill me! I'll go with you quietly, I'll be your prisoner! Just don't kill me!"

Shunshi couldn't help but pity this normally horrifying monster and was about to accept its plea for mercy, but he stopped himself when Blue Fire spoke up and shouted in a ferocious tone to the monster "You think we'd allow an evil thing like you to live!? This is where you die, monster!"

He was a bit surprised by Blue Fire's response to the ogre's pleas of mercy, but Shunshi didn't dare to question the highest ranking hero in the room.

Just as Blue Fire was about to burn up the monster, the ground beneath the creature was broken apart by, what looked like, a larger, female version of these ogres. The monster that Blue Fire was about to attack had gotten instantly crushed by all of the debris that the female ogre had smashed up.

All of the A-Class heroes had jumped away from the massive creature and gotten into battle stances expecting to fight for their lives, but before the monster could try and attack them, it fell to the floor, dead, as its throat exploded open with Watchdog Man crawling out from inside of it.

Watchdog Man was covered in the monster's saliva and blood, and he had a noticeable cut along his right cheek.

Quickly seeing the injury on his face, Shunshi ran up to the S-Class hero and asked him in a concerned tone of voice "Are you okay, Watchdog Man?! What were you even doing inside of that thing?"

Giving whatever pain he might be feeling no mind, Watchdog Man quickly used his leg to scratch his head and replied emotionlessly "We fought each other for a few minutes. I was beating it pretty easily, but it did manage to get a good shot in on my face. After that, it swallowed me whole, so I started cutting it up from the inside and I'm guessing it crashed through the floor and wound up here in an attempt to deal with the pain... I see that you guys beat the monsters up here as well, looks like that means the mission is done. Let's leave."

The rest of the heroes were surprised by Watchdog Man's continued emotionlessness as he walked away. After exchanging confused looks with one another, they decided to just follow the S-Class hero out of the abandoned parking lot.

After they all made their way back to C-City's Hero Association H.Q. they were greeted by the worker that had called them all over in the first place.

The worker adjusted his shirt collar and said to the heroes with a smile "Good work. That should deal with most of the monsters in this city."

He then noticed the bad conditions that Forte and Smile Man were in and commented awkwardly "If... if any of you feel that you need a hospital stay, we'll pay for it of course. Now, if you all feel up to it, please fill out your reports for this mission and then you can go on your ways."

As the worker walked away, Watchdog Man grabbed a report sheet with his mouth and went to a corner of the lobby to fill out his report in private.

Meanwhile. All of the A-Class heroes that went on this mission were sitting in a circle and trying to figure out how many monsters each of them beat individually and how they should divide out the points.

As he crossed his arms, Tanktop Vegetarian stated proudly to the others "I beat five of them on my own! What did you wimps do?!"

Being quick to shut down the higher ranked hero's arrogance, Stinger replied with a grin "I took down ten of them by myself, big guy. What do you think of that?"

Tanktop Vegetarian looked a visibly offended, but he turned to Forte and Smile Man and asked them angrily "How many did you two take down?!" Forte rubbed some of his injuries and replied weakly "I only got two of them..." Smile Man replied calmly "I managed to get three of them, myself."

Blue Fire folded his arms and stated calmly "I got sixteen of them. I think that's something I can safely be proud of."

Stinger, then, looked over at Shunshi and asked him in a friendly and curious tone of voice "How many did you get, new guy?"

Shunshi was hesitant to answer Stinger's question for a moment, but he eventually responded in an almost confused tone of voice "I... I killed... about twenty of them I believe."

As he looked at the shocked expressions around him, Shunshi thought in a disappointed tone "I guess I overestimated how strong A-Class heroes are... This is so depressing... Well, they're still strong enough to do their jobs... I guess."

Everyone was surprised by the amount of monsters that Shunshi said he had beaten for a moment, but the tanktop hero eventually stood up and said angrily to Shunshi "You must have mostly gone after the ones that I softened up! Give me the credit for the monsters you beat!"

Shunshi was confused by this for a minute, but then thought to himself in an offended and angry tone "Looks like another selfish person snuck into the Hero Association."

Stinger and Forte both glared at Tanktop Vegetarian for a moment and were both about to say something to him, but Shunshi suddenly stood up as well and asked the tanktopper in a passive-aggressive tone "You want the credit for my work? Then beat me in a fight, right now."

All of the others were surprised to hear this challange, but Tanktop Vegetarian just smiled in a cocky manner and replied to Shunshi, while cracking his knuckles "Smash your face in? No problem."

The giant man who claimed to be a hero threw a punch at Shunshi as hard and fast as he could, but the armored hero redirected the attack away from himself and threw his own punch at the tanktop 'hero's' face, knocking out one of his teeth and causing blood to fly from his mouth as he was sent flying across the room.

While the other heroes were surprised by Shunshi's actions, he quickly filled out his report sheet and turned it in to the front desk.

As he was leaving the building, Shunshi, practically shaking with anger, asked the other A-Class Heroes "Why are there so many guys like him in the Hero Association who only care about who gets the credit? We just need to do our jobs as heroes and help people!"

After taking a moment to calm down, Shunshi took off his helmet, gave off a small smile and said to the heroes "Thank you guys for being so kind to me. I had a lot of fun working with all of you. I hope I get to work with you guys again sometime in the future." He then put his helmet back on and left.

A few minutes after Shunshi had left, Forte and Smile Man were left speechless, while Stinger thought in surprise "Holly crap! He's really strong. Maybe my popularity won't be enough to stay ahead of him... I hope I can stay on good terms with him."

Blue Fire put his hand on his chin and thought intensely "I didn't really notice it until now, but it seems that his strength is in the same league as my own... Hopefully he stays on the path of true justice."

Later that night, after making his way back to his master's home, Shunshi was let in by Genos and carried himself into the apartment in a tired manner.

Genos quickly made himself busy by washing his and Saitama's clothes, while Saitama was playing a handheld video game.

When Saitama noticed the tired looking Shunshi, he asked his disciple with the smallest amount of interest in his voice "Hey Shunshi. How'd that mission of your's go?" Shunshi looked over to his Sensei, smiled, and replied honestly "It was pretty fun. I got some good experience and a good fight."

Saitama looked minorly interested by Shunshi's explanation and replied "Huh..."

While pausing his game, Saitama thought to himself in a slightly upset tone "It's been a while since I've had a good fight myself."

While folding a shirt, Genos inquisitively asked Shunshi "Is there anything else that you learned from your mission?"

Taking a moment to think his answer over, Shunshi remembered Tanktop Vegetarian's horrible attitude and, then, replied to Genos in a happy tone "I just got a better idea of what other A-Class heroes are capable of... If you guys don't mind, I think I'll just head home now."

As he resumed his video game, Saitama replied emotionlessly "Me and Genos are the ones that actually live here. You can go home whenever you want." Shunshi smiled, bowed to Saitama and said "Alright. I'll be heading out then."

While he was finishing folding shirts, Genos said politely "Goodbye, Shunshi."

As Shunshi walked back to his home, he thought in a concerned tone of voice while looking up at one of the crescent moons "I hope I don't run into any more of those selfish 'heroes'... Wait, did master do any hero work yet? I hope so. I don't want him getting kicked out of the Hero Association in his first weak."


	6. Chapter 6: The Weekend

Two days after Shunshi and many other heroes were asked to help with the monster nest in C-City, he, Genos and their master were all hanging out at Saitama's place.

Shunshi was doing his extreme extreme exercises. As usual, Genos was observing Saitama and taking notes of literally every little thing he was doing, while Saitama himself was just reading manga and sitting on his ass. So basically, everyone was doing their usual thing.

Saitama eventually glanced over at Genos as he constantly took notes of him, and asked his cyborg disciple with a slightly curious tone "So, uh, what are ya doing over there?" Glancing up from his notebook, Genos quickly replied "I'm recording the details of your lessons and training regiment."

When Genos Said this, Saitama rubbed his brow and thought in a mixture of annoyance and worry "Crap. He's raising the bar again! I can't think of a single thing I can possibly teach this guy. I feel bad, like I'm scamming him or something. Come on, think! Just make up some techniques or a spiritual theory or... something!... Argh! Strength training is all I got and he won't be satisfied by that like Shunshi is; the dudes' a cyborg!"

Shunshi was curious what Genos was writing down, so he got up from his one handed push-ups, looked over his Senpai's shoulder and took a peak and his notebook, but he was both confused and surprised when all he saw were notes on how Saitama sits while reading manga.

Seeing all these pointless notes that his Senpai was taking down, Shunshi thought to himself with slight concern while giving Genos a funny look from behind his back "... I... I'm starting to worry that Genos-Senpai is either far too analytical or... just a little bit crazy."

While Shunshi was growing more and more concerned about the mental state of his Senpai and Saitama was desperately trying to think of a training method for Genos, the young cyborg asked Saitama "By the way, during the seminar, they said that if you are a C-Class hero and you have no activity for a week, then your name will be removed from the hero registry. Will you be alright, master?"

Shunshi chimed in on Genos' question with a friendly tone of voice "I wouldn't worry, Senpai. With how great of a hero Saitama-Sensei is, I'm sure he's already done plenty of hero work during this week!"

When Genos and Shunshi said this, a look of horror grew on Saitama's face as he gasped, climbed onto his coffee table and asked his students in a very worried tone "Seriously, they said that?!" Shunshi now looked worried himself and replied to his master "Um... Yes, Sensei. It was one of the first things they told us about..." When he told Saitama this, the bald hero responded in a very confused tone "But I was watching the news all week and there was nothing to act on! How would they expect me to do any hero work if it's not on the news!?"

Genos answered Saitama in an unnerved tone "The news only reports major incidents, like natural disasters, terrorism and dangerous monsters. You always battle the most powerful enemies, so you are probably not aware of this, but C-Class heroes mostly take care of purse snatchers, robberies and random attackers. With C-Class being so full of heroes, they must actively look for cases to survive. Many get discouraged and change carriers. Much in the way a salesman makes cold calls, nothing will come your way without legwork."

Gaining a much more intense demeanor, Saitama quickly stood up and shouted in a serious tone "This is no time to be reading manga!"

He quickly started putting on his hero costume, causing Shunshi to grab and open the backpack that he carried his own hero costume in, while Genos asked Saitama with minor excitement in his voice "Are we leaving?" Saitama replied to this dismissively while continuing to put on his outfit "I am; you two stay here! Don't you get it?! If I'm working with a S-Class hero and an A-Class hero like you guys then a C-Class hero like me won't get any credit!"

Shunshi looked disappointed by Saitama's refusal to let he and Genos come with him, but he understood his master's reasoning, so he zipped his backpack up and set it back down on the floor getting back to finishing up his workouts.

On the other hand, Genos, not one to take no for an answer, stated in an almost upset tone "But as your disciple-" Before he could finish his argument, Saitama gained a look of realization, put on his left-hand glove and said in a very wise and charismatic sounding tone of voice "Genos, from the very beginning, my intense desire to be a hero is what lead me down the path of strength training, that's how I made it this far. For you, perhaps things will change if you aim higher as a hero. To be more than what you are now... Frankly speaking, unlike Shunshi, you're a cyborg, so training your body would be useless; instead, a change in mindset may lead you to greater strength."

Shunshi had now gotten to the part in his exercises where he did Saitama's training regiment and he was looking in awe at his teacher while he gave his speech to Genos. During this speech, Shunshi thought to himself in amazement "Oh my God! I never thought of becoming stronger like that... Master truly is amazing!"

Meanwhile, in Saitama's thoughts "Damn, listen to me; I'm just making all this crap up!"

Continuing on with his speech, Saitama dramatically stated to Genos "Sooo... In other words, it's not about having raw power or technique; not at all. It's about training your mind! You must first fight your way through the professional hero industry. Aim to break into the top ten of the S-Class heroes; that will be your goal for the time being!"

Genos had a very analytical look on his face before opening his eyes and responding very determinedly "I understand, I will try!"

While walking towards the door, Saitama thought in an incredibly relived tone "He totally bought it! Sweetness!"

While quickly blowing through one hundred regular sit ups, Shunshi thought to himself in a serious tone while glancing at Saitama as he walked towards the door "I don't know how many years of intense training it will take me reach a goal like that, Sensei, but I will do the same!"

After making his way to the city, Saitama spent the rest of that day running throughout the streets, and even the country-side in search of evil to fight, but, much to his dismay, there was no criminals to catch or monsters to fight that day, the whole city was completely quite.

While catching his breath from all of his running, Saitama said to himself in despair "I give up... Just one more day left..." He then stood up straight and calmly said to himself "Guess I'll just head home then."

Saitama started heading home as a woman held her small dog back while it barked at the yellow clad man with a white cape.

Thinking to himself in a content tone while he looked at the road in front of himself, Saitama concluded "I'll just leave tomorrow's problems to tomorrow's me."

When Saitama got back to his place, he saw Genos and Shunshi, the latter of whom was now wearing his full hero outfit excluding the helmet, and the two were sitting parallel to each other. Genos seemed to be trying to explain the notes he took about Saitama to his junior, but everything he said just served to confuse Shunshi.

Deciding to make his presence known to them, Saitama approached his disciples and asked with a small amount of interest "Hey guys. What have you two been up to today?"

Almost gaining a happy expression on his face when he saw his teacher, Genos set his notebook down and answered "Hello, Sensei. At the moment, Shunshi has asked me to explain the notes that I had written down about you to him, but before that, a little bit after you had left, Shunshi went out to preform hero work as well, while I stayed here and took care of the chores."

Saitama nodded to Genos and said with a small amount of gratitude "Oh, thanks for that, man."

After taking a drink from a glass of water that he'd gotten for himself, the overpowered C-Class hero looked at Shunshi inquisitively as he drank a cup of tea, before smirking and asking the weaker of his two disciples "So, you went out to do some hero work as well?" Shunshi quickly snapped to attention, swallowed his tea as fast as he could, almost choking on it in the process, and responded to his master in his usual humble tone "Yes, Sensei. I try to do some heroics every day; I do take some days off though of course."

Saitama continued with his smirk and said "Alright. Pretty slow day though today, am I right?" Shunshi thought about his day's work for a second and then replied "Yeah, I guess so. I went to W-City today and I was only able to find one guy trying to mug a person, but I put a stop to that pretty quickly."

Almost unable to believe what he'd just heard, Saitama quickly rushed up to Shunshi and asked him in an upset tone "Wait! You seriously found a bad guy to fight!?"

Shrinking back a bit into his cloak, Shunshi replied meekly to Saitama "Yes, Master... Did i do something wrong?"

Lightly punching himself in the head out of frustration, Saitama replied to his now frightened student while glaring at the floor "I couldn't find any bad guys!" Both Shunshi and Genos looked genuinely surprised to hear this.

Genos put his hand on his chin and said in a concerned tone "That means you only have until tomorrow to find a crime or monster to stop, Sensei..."

Quickly thinking of something that he might be able to do to help, Shunshi shot up from the floor and said to his master "I could give you some of the credit for my work! If you're given even just a little credit than you'll make it through this week and since I'm an A-Class hero I don't need a weekly amount of work that I actually NEED to complete! Perfect, right?"

Saitama looked shocked to hear this and thought in an amazed tone "Holy crap! Can he really do that?! Yeah, that would make things a lot easier!... No."

After letting out a frustrated sigh, Saitama responded to Shunshi's offer by telling him "It's fine. I'll figure something out on my own tomorrow. Besides, that would be like cheating and I've never taken the easy way out... when it comes to being a hero that is..."

Amazed with the amount of maturity Saitama just displayed, Shunshi grew an embarrassed look and said in an slightly humiliated tone "Oh... right. What was I thinking?... I'm gonna head home now, OK?"

As he began to wind down, Saitama stretched out his arm and replied with his standard emotionlessness "Yeah, alright. I'm gonna hit the hay pretty soon anyways." Genos, who had just finished writing down Saitama's 'lesson' about not cheating, quickly closed his notebook and said attentively "I shale go to sleep now as well."

After Genos went outside to preform some daily maintenance on himself, Shunshi looked a little confused, so he tapped on Saitama's shoulder and whispered to him "Does he always go to bed at the exact same time as you, Master?" Saitama looked almost embarrassed and, as sounds of mechanical maintenance came from outside the door, he simply answered "... Yes."

Shunshi continued to whisper "Senpai sure is an odd one."

Smirking at this, Saitama looked Shunshi in his eyes and said with a slight amount of humor in his voice "Says the guy who can set himself on fire and throw balls of exploding light."

Thinking this over for a second, Shunshi started laughing at himself while saying "I guess you're right, Sensei. We're just a trio of weirdos I suppose. Well, I'll see you tomorrow."

After Shunshi left, Saitama asked himself in a genuinely confused tone "Wait... Trio? Does he mean me? How am I a weirdo?"

The following day; Saitama was back out in the city and was panicking while frantically looking around his surroundings.

Saitama said to himself as he began to panic "Oooooohh. It's quite out today too! There's nothing today, NOTHING! I'm gonna lose my registration. How does Shunshi ever manage to find bad guys?!"

Before Saitama could continue with his panicking, a kunai knife came flying at him, but he easily caught it between his fingers before it had any chance of hitting him. Looking in the direction that the knife came from, Saitama quickly found the one who threw this weapon at him, Speed-O-Sound Sonic.

While addressing Sonic, Saitama's face grew noticeably more serious and he stated "Hold up. I've run into you before. What was your name again?... Seed On The Ground... no... Lost And Found?... Oh, Jack-O-Lantern Panic!"

Growing visibly more annoyed, Sonic quickly corrected Saitama in a cold tone of voice "No, it's Speed-O-Sound Sonic. I finally found you, Saitama. Today is the day we settle our-"

Saitama quickly cut off Sonic's monologue and said in a sincere tone "Hey, sorry. I'm busy; see you around, okay?" He, then, started walking away.

Quickly growing furious at Saitama's dismissal of him, Sonic shouted viciously at his 'rival' "Insolent worm!" He followed this up by swiftly pulling out his sword and continuing to shout "Think you can escape from ME!?"

Sonic rushed at Saitama as fast as his superhuman speed would allow him to go and then swung his sword at his enemy's face, but the invincible hero just bit the blade in half before it could hit him, not that it would have hurt him anyways.

The S-Class criminal was shocked to see the metal of his sword's blade shatter like it did, resulting in him thinking in utter confusion "What? I didn't even see what just happened. His face should have been cut open, but instead the blade..."

Not wanting to deal with another person pestering for his attention, Saitama's expression shifted to one of a combination of anger and annoyance as he stated stated to Sonic "I told you... I'm busy, plus I'm pissed, so anyone who gets in my way..." Saitama paused for a split second, in that split second, anyone who had a good sense of self preservation could feel a menacing aura coming from him as he finished his sentence "Gets punched!"

Sonic could feel Saitama's killer instincts begin to come out as he gasped out of a small amount of fear.

Before Saitama could get Sonic to leave, a woman pointed at Saitama and Sonic's direction and exclaimed in a frustrated tone "That's the guy! He's very very dangerous, a public nuisance. Please, stop him!"

The large, muscular man with tiger styled clothing and tiger styled hair that was standing next to this woman asked in a rhetorical tone while flexing his large muscles "Oh, is that so? You're the offender, huh? Well, the Tanktop Tiger is here!"

Saitama quickly looked over this large man and thought in a minorly surprised tone "A hero?"

He, then, turned back to Sonic, gave him a goofy smile and, in a condescending tone, he declared to the ninja "Bad news, Sonic! Looks like they think you're some kind of criminal. Maybe being thrown in a jail cell will cool off that hot hea-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Tanktop Tiger put his hand on top the bald hero's head and coldly explained to him "She means you, cue-ball." Hearing these words, Saitama's face shifted into a combination of annoyance, anger and confusion as he simply replied "Huh?!"

The woman that brought Tanktop Tiger here explained to him in an accusatory tone while pointing at Saitama "He's been running around town since yesterday morning with this scary look on his face!"

As he continued listening to these accusations, Saitama quickly tried to defend himself by desperately explaining "Hey, wait a minute! I'm a hero too!"

When Saitama said this, Tanktop Tiger folded his arms and asked the man he was towering over in an unconvinced tone of voice "You are, huh? I've never heard of a hero like you." Getting a little bit angrier now, Saitama replied "So what?! I just started, OK!?"

By now, a murmuring crowed had started forming around Saitama, Sonic and Tanktop Tiger.

Tanktop Tiger didn't seem at all impressed with Saitama's hero status and said to him in a dismissive tone "In any case; you're causing problems around here for everyone." Saitama's face just grew more nervous and annoyed at this criticism.

The tanktopper continued "If you're really a hero, then don't go around frightening people. You're hurting all the other heroes' reputations."

As they looked at the man who was dressed in a tiger-patterned shirt, some of the people from the crowed started speaking up: one man asked his friend "Hey, isn't that Tanktop Tiger over there?" Another man exclaimed "I can't believe it, it is Tanktop Tiger!" One woman in the crowed shouted "No way!" One other person commented in a tone of admiration "He's the real deal!"

Having been given all of this praise, Tanktop Tiger rubbed his nose in arrogance, before commenting proudly "Even C-Class heroes get recognized... Well, if they're in the top ten anyways." He, then, refocused his attention on Saitama and asked him in a smug tone "So, how about it, new guy? You wanna fight?..." Switching to a whispered voice, he continued to speak "And make me look good in the process?"

Before Saitama could give this arrogant 'hero' a piece of his mind, the tanktopper got hit in his side by exploding shurikens, knocking him out cold and severely injuring him.

When the crowd saw the 'mighty hero' Tanktop Tiger fall to the ground, one woman shrieked in panic while a man shouted in fear "TANKTOP TIGER!" One frightened person asked "Is this really happening?..."

Saitama, while looking at the unconscious Tanktop Tiger, asked Sonic in his usual emotionless tone "What was that for, Sonic?"

Giving off a small, but very arrogant grin, Sonic explained "He was interfering, so I tucked him in for a nap."

The crowd that had gathered were now running away while one man shouted "Somebody call a hero, now, quick!"

After everyone had left, Sonic, in an excited tone of voice, said to the bald C-Class hero that was standing in front of him "Interesting though; so you too have become one of these worthless association heroes; then all I have to do... is create a situation where you're forced to fight me, SAITAMA THE HERO!"

The high-speed ninja suddenly jumped into the air and tossed several more of his exploding shurikens while shouting "Hail of Carnage!"

At first, these shurikens seemed to be headed towards a prepared looking Saitama, but they all suddenly changed their paths and hit most of the surrounding buildings, causing the parts of the buildings that were hit to start falling towards the ground and the people below.

When Saitama realized what Sonic was doing, he shouted in an annoyed tone "Hey, stop it!" Sonic ignored Saitama's plea and shouted "Saitama, come forth and fight me! You're a hero; can you prevent their deaths!?"

Admits all the destruction there was a young boy, no older than seven or eight, crying for his dad as one of the explosions sent a car flying at him, but before the vehicle could hit him, a pissed off Saitama got between the kid and the car, raising his arm so that the airborne driving machine would hit his limb instead of the kid.

Saitama, now looking angrier than he had been for a long time, asked himself as the kid behind him looked at him in a combination of fear and amazement "Dammit all! Can't everyone just let me do my job?!"

He put the car down and exclaimed "I don't have time for this crap! I gotta find a bad guy to take down." He then heard Sonic's laughter, looked at the ninja as he was still in the air and throwing exploding shurikens.

As he watched all of the property damage being caused, Saitama mumbled to himself "A bad guy..."

Sonic, now wearing his 'child-like smile' again metaphorically asked his 'rival' "What's wrong?! Not coming? Fine, then I'll go to you!"

Without warning, Saitama suddenly appeared behind the airborne Sonic and calmly said "I'm right here."

Before Sonic could even register that Saitama was behind him, he got karate chopped in the back, which resulted in him being smashed into the ground and getting put in too much pain to move or think clearly.

Saitama landed next to the hole shaped like a critically injured assassin and pondered to himself "I wonder if taking this guy out will count as work."

Meanwhile, back at Saitama's place.

Genos was on his laptop and Shunshi, who was once again in his hero outfit, was about to go out for another patrol when he asked Genos hopefully "Hey, Senpai. Do you want to come on a patrol with me?"

With a bit of annoyance on his face, Genos looked up from his laptop confused, and asked his junior "Why would I want to do that?"

Due to Genos' somewhat hostile response, Shunshi thought he had somehow overstepped his boundaries by asking this, so he replied meekly "I... I just thought you might be interested to go... You know... Because of Master's new goal for you?..."

Seemingly haven taken this idea into consideration, Genos closed his laptop and responded in a much more respectful tone than mere seconds before "I see your point. I think I will accompany you after all."

Smiling underneath his helmet, Shunshi exclaimed happily "Awesome! Let's go, Senpai! Which city do you want to patrol today?" Genos thought this over for a split second and then responded "I think I would like to go to N-City today."

Shunshi shrugged in agreement as a response to this and asked Genos while holding the door open for him "If you don't mind me asking, Senpai, is there any reason in particular that you want to go to that city?" As he walked out the door, Genos simply answered "Nothing all that complex, I simply like the shape of the letter n."

Practically flinching in surprise, Shunshi was understandably taken a little off guard by Genos' simple reasoning for wanting to go to this city, but out of respect for his Senpai, he didn't argue about it with the young cyborg.

An hour or so later, the two high ranking heroes were running around the streets of N-City at superhuman speeds. Some people tried to stop them for autographs and the like. Shunshi didn't want to be rude to them, but whenever they got asked about stopping their search for a criminal or a monster to fight just so that they could sign someone's forehead, Genos replied "No. I need to at least defeat one evil being by the end of today."

After searching around this city for a while, Genos and Shunshi were starting to become annoyed at the lack of activity when, all of a sudden, a pick-up truck with a hole in it was sent flying in their direction.

Shunshi jumped out of the way of the truck, but Genos just used a fire blast to melt it before it could reach him. After rushing back over to Genos' side, Shunshi pointed at the pile of melted metal that used to be a truck while exclaiming "Nice one, Senpai." Genos didn't really acknowledge Shunshi's praise and instead started searching for the source of whatever just threw a truck at himself and his junior.

Suddenly, a frightened and scuffed up teenage girl came running down the street and, as soon as she saw him, she rushed up to Genos and asked him in a very terrified tone of voice "Are you that new S-Class hero?!" Genos began to scan this girl for injuries as he replied coldly "I am, and this is my junior, Shunshi. He's an A-Class hero if I remember correctly."

After his introduction, Shunshi gave a friendly wave to the frightened girl, but she just shrieked a bit at the sight of his intimating costume. However, this didn't seem to bother him, in fact, he seemed quite used to this reaction.

Genos quickly regained the young girl's attention when he asked her in a demanding tone of voice "What do you need?" The girl quickly recomposed herself and said to Genos while pointing behind herself "There's some monster over there! Please stop it! It's killing people!" When Genos heard this, his robot arms lit up with heat.

Without even turning to look at him, Genos ordered Shunshi "Come on, Shunshi!" He, then, took off in the direction that the young girl pointed towards by launching himself in that direction with his flame blasts.

Before taking off to help Genos, Shunshi took a second to say to the young girl in a reassuring tone "Don't worry, Ms. Genos and I will handle this monster in no time and keep it from hurting anyone else." He then took off as fast as he could as well.

After the two high ranking heroes had left to fight the monsters, the teenage girl thought to herself in a seduced tone "Wow, that Genos guy is even hotter in person than he was in his profile picture. I think he might have even liked me... Why does he have to hang around with such scary guys though?"

Quickly catching up to Genos, Shunshi saw him fighting some sort of humanoid monster with long, brown hair that covered every part of its body, except for its eyes and mouth, as well as razor blades for fingers. Around the monster's feet were the corpses off people who had been cut up with deep wounds and punctured on various different parts of their bodies with long, sharp hairs.

While continuing to slash at Genos with its razor claws, the hairy monster declared "I was always harrier than all of my peers and whenever I tried to shave it off, it just came back the next day even harrier than before! The torture of having such a horrible curse has allowed evil to take form in me and twist my body into the Demon-Class monster you see before you: the great Shaving Lord! Now everyone will know my pain, even if it kills them!"

Shunshi quickly rushed in to help Genos by spin kicking the monster in the back of its head, knocking it a few feet away, but it quickly recovered from the attack, looked at Shunshi and exclaimed in a cocky tone of voice "Oh, great! Now there's two heroes here. Maybe if I can kill both of you AND destroy this city. I bet I'll be moved up to a Dragon level threat!"

As he tried to refocus himself on the fight, Genos suddenly appeared next to him and stated in a blood thirsty tone "It is very unlikely that you will live long enough to destroy this city."

Before the monster could react to the blonde cyborg, it got punched in the face by a robotic fist being propelled forward with miniature jet engines. While being sent flying backwards, Shunshi jumped into the strange creature's path and took the opportunity to punch the monster in its stomach, smashing it into the ground that was in front of the hero, destroying pavement beneath him in the process.

As it was on the ground, the monster, using its superhuman strength, pushed away Shunshi, pushed itself off of the ground and into the air before preforming some back flips in order to gain some distance between itself and the heroes that were pummeling it.

The monster thought to itself in a panicked tone as it landed back on the ground "Crap! What kind of heroes are these guys?!... Wait a second! Is that blonde kid that new S-Class hero I heard about?! Who's the other guy though? I think I might've heard some murmurs about a new A-Class hero or something. A S-Class hero brought an A-Class hero with him as backup?! Just my luck! I know my hair could probably protect me, but should I try to just run away from them?..."

While the monster was thinking these thoughts, Genos appeared behind the Shaving Lord once again, forcing it to realize that Genos was far too fast for it to hope of escaping.

Continuing with his assault on this monster, Genos jumped just above its head and hit it with a downward blast of fire. Surprisingly, this attack didn't burn Shaving Lord to death, as he was instead smashed into the ground while a bunch of its hair that had been burnt off the attack were almost instantly growing back.

Seeing the bewilderment on Genos, Shaving Lord stood up and stated to the slightly confused hero "My hair regrows so quickly and it is so durable that it acts like an endless shiel-"

Before it could finish its declaration, Shunshi threw just under a dozen of his light balls into the back of the monster's head, burning up some more hair, all of which grew back very quickly, but the force from the attack did knock Shaving Lord onto its face.

Shaving Lord was now more annoyed by these heroes than it was afraid of them. It quickly got back up, turned to face Shunshi and then shot out hundreds of his super strong hairs from his arm at the A-Class. He managed to dodge most of the hairs, but a few dozen of them managed to hit him in the side of his torso, piercing his body everywhere that they hit.

Shunshi was bleeding a fair amount from his injuries and was now glaring at the monster from underneath his helmet, while Shaving Lord just started to grin at him.

Just as Shaving Lord was about to attack again, it got hit from behind by an even larger blast of fire by a now angrier looking Genos.

Genos, who had been keeping himself propelled in the air since his last attack, landed back down onto the ground while Shaving Lord's body hair regrew. Genos stated angrily as he glared at this monster "Don't harm my allies!"

Before Shaving Lord could counterattack, Genos activated the jets on his back and started circling around the demon while pelting it with a barrage of fire blasts in an attempt to burn off all of the super durable hairs and get an opening to finish his enemy off.

Shaving Lord kept trying to hit Genos with its hairs, but it just couldn't get a pinpoint on the super fast cyborg.

Getting desperate now that its shield was was getting reduced to ash, Shaving Lord stopped trying to aim its hairs, raised its arms into the air, and shouted angrily "Storm Of Needles!" When it said that, all of the hairs on its body shot out at once in all directions, hitting both Genos and Shunshi at once with the thin needle-like objects.

Genos got hit by nearly a thousand of these hairs; his cyborg body protected him from any lethal harm for the moment, but a lot of the hairs got into the openings of his body's joints, damaging many of his internal components and weakening his ability to move considerably.

Shaving Lord was laughing manically at the barely moving Genos and stated arrogantly to his wounded opponent "As soon as my hair grows back, I'll finish you... finish you..." It stopped itself from speaking when it thought that it felt something extremely hot getting closer and closer from behind.

A white flame covered Shunshi, who was now bleeding on just about every part of his body due to all the puncture wounds, rushed at Shaving Lord before it could finish its sentence and used one of his gauntlets to claw a deep gash into the monster's back. Shaving Lord quickly turned around after receiving this wound and, desperately trying to buy time for his hairs to regrow, tried to stab at Shunshi's stomach with its razor blade fingers, but the dark-clad hero manage to mostly sidestep this attack, but the blades did graze his waist a little bit, drawing forth even more blood. He then grabbed onto the monster's extended arm and swiftly used his free hand to chop off the upper half of its limb.

Shaving Lord was screaming in pain as his cut up arm was bleeding like crazy, and just as his hairs started to grow back, Shunshi grabbed his throat and stated viciously "Looks like you aren't so tough without all that hair!" Shunshi, then, made another light ball in his free hand and shoved it into the mouth of the demon, blowing up its head and neck.

Shunshi, who was now dizzy from blood loss, started shambling over to Genos in order to help his Senpai to stand up straight.

As he used his own internal heat to burn away whatever hairs were stuck inside of his body, Genos commented to his junior in the most respectful tone he had ever spoken to him in the short time that they'd known each other "... You did a better job than I thought you would have done against a monster of that level."

Shunshi took off his helmet in an attempt to get more oxygen, smiled a faltered smile and replied to Genos "Thank you, Senpai, but I never could have beaten it if it hadn't shot off all of its hair-armor like a moron. I just got lucky is all. You could've probably taken it down on your own if you didn't have to worry about me during the fight."

Genos just looked at the smiling and heavily injured Shunshi as he, despite his own injuries, helped to support his cyborg Senpai walk and thought to himself "... Shunshi is not wrong about not being strong enough to defeat that monster on his own, but, at the same time, I think he's underestimating his own power. According to my data, his combat abilities seem to have more than doubled since we first met... It seems that Master's training is helping him to improve his power much faster than I could have predicted."

After Genos gave Shunshi directions to get him back to Dr. Stench's lab for repairs, he made his way to the closest Hero Association building and filed out the report for his and Genos' victory over the Shaving Lord, despite all the worried looks and comments he received from the people and staff there regarding his condition. The humble, or possibly just stupid, hero, then, made his way back home, so that he could properly heal from his injuries.

The next day. Genos had gotten repaired and was on his way back from running an errand for Saitama when he came across Shunshi, who had managed to heal from the injuries that he got from the fight against the Shaving Lord.

Genos waved hello to his junior and said to him in a calm, yet somewhat friendly tone "I thought that it would have taken you longer to heal from the injuries that you received yesterday."

Having taken notice of his friend headed towards him, Shunshi smiled and replied in a happy tone "Oh, hey, Genos! It's cool, right? I guess those injuries weren't so bad after all." In response to this, Genos put his hand on his chin and gained an inquisitive look.

Since he just now noticed that Shunshi wasn't wearing his hero outfit, Genos asked him "Is there a reason that you aren't in your costume? You usually wear it whenever you go out in public." Shunshi glanced at his own civilian clothes for a second before replying in a friendly tone "Well, for one thing, it's my self-appointed day off; the second thing is that Sensei said it's stupid for someone to wear their hero costume all the time."

Genos simply nodded his head in understanding and asked "I'm heading back to mine and Master's home now. Would you like to come with me?" Shunshi raised his fist in a happy manner and replied "I'd never say no to visiting Saitama-Sensei!"

When the two young heroes arrived at their master's home, they noticed a box full of kombu outside the door before Genos unlocked said door and let himself and Shunshi inside. The two of them found Saitama in the kitchen, boiling kombu in a pot.

Saitama smiled slightly at the sight of two of them and said "Hey guys... So, Shunshi; you didn't come here to train yesterday. Any reason why?"

In Saitama's head, he thought in a mixture of annoyance and hopefulness to himself "Maybe he finally realized that he can just work out at home instead of always coming here to do it..."

Shunshi replied to his teacher's question with a smile "I was just recovering from a fight with a monster that me and Genos-Senpai took down, Saitama-Sensei. I guess I'll do the part of my daily workout that I got from you, you did say that I have to do it every single day, but I mostly just came by to visit you and Genos-Senpai."

Saitama shrugged in acceptance of this and said calmly while continuing to focus on preparing the kombu "Alright. I don't really mind your company all that much anyway."

Genos turned everyone's attention back to the food that Saitama was preparing by saying "Master, we noticed a large amount of kombu by the front door." Saitama replied to this in a happy tone "Oh, yeah; funny story I... uh... just happened to come across a really great deal for the stuff."

Not one to concern himself with these types of things, Shunshi went into the living room to get Saitama's training regiment out of the way so that he could enjoy the evening.

As he was doing this, Genos approached Saitama, examined the pot of kombu that he was preparing and, then, commented in a near emotionless tone of his own "Some people say that kombu is good for growing hair, but their is little scientific proof that supports this notion and their real benefits are yet to be confirmed."

Due the topic of his hair being a very sensitive one, Saitama's expression shifted into a completely stone cold one before Genos continued to speak "I did some research of my own, so I am sure, Master. For example: according to this sight-" Saitama quickly cut Genos off and shouted angrily "No one said anything about hair!"

The next day. At Saitama's place, Genos was examining the Hero Association website, Saitama was enjoying a mug of tea while reading the newspaper, and Shunshi was near the end of his daily workout regiment, as such, he was about to get ready to go on patrol.

All of a sudden, Genos looked up from his computer and said to Saitama "By the way, Sensei. I filled in those strange holes in front of the house." Saitama turned away from his newspaper, looked at Genos with his typical emotionless expression and said "Really? K thanks."

Genos then added a bit of more good news by informing Saitama "Also, you're rank has gone up from near-last place, three hundred eight eighth, to three hundred forty second, congratulations."

When he heard that his master had received a well deserved promotion, Shunshi looked up from his push-ups and said to Saitama with a very happy expression "Great job, Sensei! That's a pretty huge promotion for just a single day of work!"

Saitama gave Shunshi a look that had just the smallest amount of surprise behind it and asked "It is? Huh, that's cool... Wait, was it cause of that panic guy? Guess turning him into the cops was a pretty good way to boost my ranking, sweet."

After reading his newspaper for a few more seconds, Saitama asked Genos and Shunshi "So, uh... I think it's been about a week now. What work have you guys done?"

Shunshi quickly stopped his workout and answered Saitama with a face and tone of voice that had a child-like air of seeking approval "I've been keeping myself super busy, Sensei! I've captured ten criminals and I defeated ten monsters, one of them was alongside Senpai though; couldn't have won without him in all honesty! The last time I checked, I was ranked as number thirteen out of thirty eight in A-Class."

Deciding to quickly check throw in a comment, Genos calmly said "Well, it seems that you're constant work has not gone to waste. According to the Hero Association website, you are now ranked as number ten in A-Class, not number thirteen."

Growing a look of complete and utter shock by this news, Shunshi shouted in an astounded tone "HOLY CRAP! I'm in the top ten of A-Class! I never dared to dream of something so amazing!"

As Shunshi was struggling to keep himself from bouncing off the walls in excitement, Saitama had a look on his face that was pretty close to embarrassment when he heard how much more work Shunshi had put compared to him, despite not even having a weekly quota to complete.

After recomposing himself, Saitama said in a slightly happy, yet awkward tone of voice "Wow... I, uh... Good work, dude." Shunshi's eyes seemed to glimmer when Saitama said this, excitedly responded "Thank you, Master!"

Wanting to answer his Sensei's question, Genos made sure he had Saitama's attention by letting out a small cough, before saying "As for me, aside from the monster that I defeated alongside Shunshi, I have not done any hero work, so I am still only ranked as number seventeen in S-Class. I promise that I will enhance my efforts of moving up in the Hero Association. I will continue to hunt monsters as powerful as the one that we defeated, if not stronger; if I work at that pace then I suspect I will raise my rank within a month."

Saitama seemed to have been less impressed by this and said in his usual tone of voice, but with a hint of approval in it "I caught one crook, so taking down a single is a bit more impressive. Still, I guess you're just gonna have to train some more."

The bald hero then took a sip from his mug of tea, but Genos continued to say "Of course, Sensei. However, in terms of popularity rankings voted on by the public, I am number six; also Shunshi is ranked as nine in popularity amongst A-Class heroes and he received fifteenth place overall."

When he heard this, Saitama spit out the tea in his mouth, most of which landed on Shunshi who had fortunately taken his shirt off for his workout, while creating a bit of a rainbow in the process.

Saitama, not noticing what he did to Shunshi despite his student's yelp of surprise, slammed his hands onto his table and shouted in a very annoyed tone "WHY?!"

Genos calmly responded by reading some comments that were underneath his Hero Association profile "'A nineteen year old genius who made his debut in S-Class'. 'He's fantastic'. 'He's so handsome'. 'Love how he refuses to do media interviews'. 'He's definitely in the top ten hottest heroes'. Those kinds of comments."

After hearing Genos read so many people praise him, Saitama commented in a baffled tone "Good God. How are you not embarrassed to read those out loud?"

Genos replied to this question in a clam matter-of-fact tone "Quite simple. These are based off impressions from my photo, they are not true evaluations off me and I think nothing off them."

Saitama's awkward expression had returned ten times more powerfully now as he said "Oh, okay..."

Shunshi, who 'for some strange reason' had grabbed a paper towel roll in order to wipe himself and the floor off during Genos' explanation, tapped on Saitama's shoulder and asked in a frustrated yet embarrassed tone of voice "Saitama-Sensei... May I use your shower?" Saitama turned around while asking "What? NO! Why would you need to use my shower?"

As he was standing there, shirtless and with some sort of weird sticky stuff on his torso, Shunshi answered his teacher "Well, after you spit your tea on me, I tried to clean it up with paper towels, but now I'm all sticky... Don't worry, sir. I'll go home to take care of it." Saitama grew a look of shame and regret and said in a hurrying tone as Shunshi was just about to start walking towards the door "Wait, hold on! Go ahead and use my shower! I'm so sorry, man!"

Smiling weakly, Shunshi bowed his head and replied with a forced tone of calmness in his voice "Thank you, Sensei, I promise I'll be done quickly... And it's no problem, really." He then went into his master's bathroom in order to clean himself off.

Laying down on the floor, Saitama rubbed the sides of his head and asked in embarrassment "Oh man, I can't believe I did that. So stupid... How didn't either of us notice that, Genos?!"

Looking almost confused, Genos replied to this in an unmoved tone of voice "I did notice it, Sensei. I assumed you were giving him some sort of new training."

After giving Genos a worried look, Saitama thought to himself "Does this guy think everything that I do is some kind of training?... Maybe I didn't even need to make up all that nonsense about mindsets or whatever I said yesterday..."

Genos scrolled down his computer screen and said "Speaking of Shunshi, some comments about him include; 'The first new A-Class hero in months, and a rookie no less, that's impressive.' 'I love how intimidating his costume is, any monster that sees him coming is gonna crap their pants.' 'I think he looks too scary to be a hero.' 'I heard he's been doing hero work every day since he joined, that's some dedication.' 'He saved me from a mugger, he's a true hero.' Another one is 'He might be really cute under his-"

Fed up with all this praise that his students were getting from the public while he got ignored, Saitama shouted at Genos once again "ENOUGH ALREADY!"


	7. Chapter 7: The Rock

The next day, after Saitama and Shunshi had received their promotions in the Hero Association rankings. The bald hero and his cyborg apprentice were both at their apartment doing their usual things; aka, Genos was doing chores and Saitama was reading manga.

Shunshi had already finished his daily workouts and went off to search for evil to fight.

Just after he had finished washing the dishes, Genos received a phone call from the Hero Association, informing him of some sort of disaster that they needed all of the S-Class heroes for.

After hanging up the phone, Genos walked over to the apartment's living room and said to Saitama, who was lazily laying on his side as he read his manga "Sensei, for some reason, the Hero Association has called me over for some sort of S-Class meeting. I will be back later." Saitama didn't even bother to look at Genos as he waved to him and responded in a somewhat joking manner "Okay; maybe you're getting kicked out of S-Class. Heh heh ha ha ha."

During Genos' walk from Saitama's place to the Hero Association headquarters, if you looked into the sky above Z-City you could see what almost looked like an extra moon that was getting closer and closer the Earth's surface by the minute.

Genos, who was carrying some sort of strange looking briefcase with him, had arrived at Z-City's Hero Association Headquarters. The blonde cyborg walked into the building, which seemed to be strangely empty at the moment.

After Genos quickly examined his surroundings, an elderly man that had been standing off to the side greeted him with a welcoming tone "Ah, you must be Genos. It's very nice to make your acquaintance; I'm Bang."

As Genos looked at Bang, he had as close as an impressed look on his face as it got for him, while he thought to himself "S-Class rank three, otherwise known as Silverfang. He posses true skill."

Genos quickly shifted his expression back to that of his usual serious nature and said to Bang "The Association called me in as well as the other S-Class heroes." Bang responded to this by informing Genos "Everyone else is over at the main Headquarters, this branch is empty now. Every S-Class hero received the call to come here, but you and I are the only ones who showed up."

In response to this information, Genos calmly asked Bang "And why is that?" Bang responded in a somewhat serious tone "Perhaps this area is too far away for them. Maybe they're busy. Of course, some of the more cold-blooded ones simply don't care... Then again, it's hard to blame them. We're only called when there's an impossible problem to take care of, and today's dilemma is no exception. The disaster level is Dragon, meaning it's one of the worst case scenarios imaginable. About thirty five minutes from now, a huge meteor is going to strike Z-City, so the Association is asking if nearby S-Class heroes can do anything about it." After Bang had explained the severity of this situation, Genos' face took on a much more shocked expression than the stoic cyborg would usually allow.

Genos quickly asked Bang in an almost fearful tone "A meteor?!" Bang responded in a somewhat upset tone "Apparently it changed course without warning... It could mean the end for us, or at least for Z-City."

Genos gasped in shock at this horrible news, while Bang continued on with his sentence, except in a more cautious tone "I'm afraid there's nothing we can do this time. You should think about evacuating with your loved ones as the others have."

Genos instantly recomposed himself and asked Bang "Do the citizens know about this?" Bang looked out of the building's glass door and responded in a doubtful tone "I was told that 'the powers that be' would issue evacuation orders thirty minutes before it hits."

As soon as Bang said this, a siren went off across the city followed by the voice of a woman saying "Attention, this is an important announcement from the Hero Association."

Upon hearing this, Silverfang chuckled and commented "The people are sure to panic."

Genos, then, asked Bang in a somewhat concerned tone "And what will you do, old fellow?" Bang smiled a bit at this, turned his back towards Genos and took a few steps away from him, before asking rhetorically "Old fellow is it? I told you, call me Bang."

Growing even more concerned, Genos asked Bang "You aren't evacuating?"

Bang replied to this in a very serious tone of voice "There is a dojo in this city that has been in my family for generations, I can't abandon it!..." Bang then struck a pose as, what looked like little streams of water came off of his fingers while he intensely exclaimed "Fist of Flowing Water Crushing Rock! Ever heard of it?"

However, as soon as Bang turned around, much to his disappointment, Genos had already taken off to try and stop the meteor, causing the elderly hero to comment "Oh... He already left."

About ten minutes later, Genos, who still had his strange looking briefcase, was running along the tops of the buildings in Z-City in order to quickly reach where the meteor was predicted to hit.

While looking up at the ever approaching space rock, Genos thought to himself in a very serious tone "I cannot really blame all of these people for giving up hope of surviving this catastrophe. If this meteorite hits, then not only will Z-city be destroyed, but the neighboring cities will sustain serious damage as well... I suppose it's too late for me to try to evacuate anyway."

As Genos got closer to the building that he wanted to land on, he saw that some other hero was already standing on the roof of that building, that hero being Shunshi, who seemed to be trying to create a giant version of one of his light ball.

At the sight of Shunshi standing right where the meteorite was about to hit, Genos thought in a confused and concerned tone "What is he doing here?! I should make him leave... It does not really matter now, I suppose. It is too late for him to get to a safe distance."

Diverting his attention away from his junior, Genos looked at the giant meteor get closer and closer as he stated to himself in a dramatic tone, while pressing a button on his briefcase's handle "I did not expect to be testing this prototype so soon!"

The briefcase then shot out in front of the young cyborg, before splitting in half and turning into a pair of bulky, mechanical arms. Genos instantly closed in on these arm upgrades and allowed them to encase his current arms while causing a burst of electricity and securing some metallic attachments to his neck and face.

When Genos landed on the building that the meteor was going to hit, Shunshi quickly took notice of him and asked in a surprised, yet hopeful tone "Senpai!?"

Deciding to openly acknowledged Shunshi's presence, Genos asked him in an upset tone "What exactly are you doing here, Shunshi?" Confused as to why he would ask that question, Shunshi responded in a tone that made it clear that he thought what he was the most obvious thing in the world "There's a giant meteor heading right for Z-City and I'm a high ranking hero now, so what exactly do you think I'm doing?! I'm getting ready to try to blow that thing out of the sky! This is where you and master Saitama live after all; plus all of the innocents who are going to die if something isn't done! I couldn't just sit around and do nothing about this!"

Raising his eyebrows in surprise at Shunshi's noble statement, Genos looked at the light ball he'd created and was just slightly impressed by the size of attack. The light ball was about three times the size of his junior's entire body, but the cyborg knew it wasn't anywhere near enough to stop the chunk of space debris headed towards the city.

Taking a second to think up a makeshift strategy, Genos remained silent for a split second before giving Shunshi an order "You keep preparing your attack, Shunshi. I am going to fire my incinerator cannon in hopes that it will stop the meteorite. I will tell you if I need assistance." Shunshi seemed content with these orders and responded "Of course, Senpai!"

Just before Genos could fire his attack, a large and very shiny looking robot, that seemed to be designed to single handedly fight off an entire army on its own, landed next to the two young heroes.

Being taken off guard by the sudden appearance of this robot, Genos asked in a surprised tone "What is that?"

Shunshi, due to a combination of admiration and struggling to hold the still growing light ball, answered his Senpai's question with a stunned voice "That... that's the S-Class hero Metal Knight, also known as professor Bofoy. He's... he's ranked number seven in S-Class... and I think he's supposed to be the smartest hero in the entire Association... His robots always look so cool!"

As Shunshi continued to charge his attack and stare at Metal Knight, Genos approached the robot hero and quickly asked him "My ally tells me that you are Bofoy. Is that correct?" Metal Knight turned to face Genos, while also giving Shunshi a quick glance, before responding with an electronic voice "Yeah that's me. And you're the new guy, Genos. Are you and that other guy here to stop the meteor too?"

Genos, once again taking a second to make another makeshift plan, explained to Metal Knight in a slightly hopeful tone "Bofoy, my ally and myself are in need of your assistance."

Metal Knight, much to the shock of both Genos and Shunshi, instantly responded by coldly saying "I refuse."

Shunshi, who was still struggling to hold his attack in place, shouted in an upset tone "WHAT?! BUT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE A HERO!"

In a slightly calmer, yet still angry tone, Genos asked Metal Knight "Why not?" Bofoy continued on with his cold tone of voice while replying "I only answered the call here to test out my new weapon system, that meteor is the perfect test."

Genos, now speaking in a much more angry tone of voice, asked Bofoy another question "A test?! If that meteor hits then you will die as well!" As soon as Genos brought this up, Bofoy dismissively replied "Fortunately, I won't."

Both Genos and Shunshi looked genuinely confused by this statement, causing Shunshi to ask Metal Knight in a just barley hopeful tone "What do you mean you won't die, Metal Knight? Did you make some kind of weapon that you know will take out that meteor for sure?" Bofoy responded to this in a disturbingly calm yet condescending tone "No, nothing like that. You see, what the two of you are speaking to is merely a remote controlled drone; my actual body is quite far away. Terribly sorry to disappoint you boys, but my life's not at stake here."

Looking even more upset now, Genos asked his fellow S-Class hero in a disapproving tone "So you are unwilling to risk harm to yourself in order to save others? That's rather unhero-like behavior, Bofoy."

Bofoy scoffed at Genos and explained in a superior tone of voice "I'm not going to just throw my life away over something as trivial as the loss of a single city. Also, take example from that darkly-clad friend of yours; I'm not Bofoy right now, I'm Metal Knight. Heroes call each other by their hero names, not their real name, everyone knows that. Now, I don't mean to be rude, but it seems like I need to cut our little chat short. The meteor's getting closer."

Genos nearly growled at Bofoy's attitude, before dashing away from the robot, grabbing Shunshi by his cape, and commanding him "Hold on to your attack as tight as you can!" Shunshi did as he was asked and, before he could ask his Senpai what he was up to, the young cyborg, while keeping a type grip on Shunshi's cape, jumped on to the top of the taller building that was standing next to the building that they had been standing on until now.

As soon as they landed on this roof, Genos got ready to fire his incinerator cannon, while Shunshi desperately tried to keep his balance from the sudden jump, not wanting to drop his energy ball on the roof and blow both himself and Genos away.

Just as Genos was about to launch his attack, Bofoy interrupted once again by shouting "Missiles fire!" The missiles that were on the back of Bofoy's drone then shot off, causing Genos to have to hold off on his own attack in fear of it detonating the explosives prematurely.

When the missiles hit the meteor, an explosion went off as a result of them colliding with the space rock. This explosion was so massive that it would have been enough to take out an entire junk of the city if they had been pointed towards the ground.

As Shunshi and Genos looked at the explosion in awe, the stronger of the two, as in Genos, couldn't help but think to himself in a tone of slight admiration "Amazing; such destructive power... This 'hero' is dangerous, I must be careful around him."

Shortly after thinking this, the smoke from the explosion cleared away, revealing that the meteorite had received little to no damage at all from this assault.

At the sight of an explosion of that magnitude doing nothing to slow down the meteor, Bofoy stated in an unmoved tone "Well, that's unfortunate; it seems they weren't potent enough." Having no further interest in this situation, Bofoy powered down his drone.

Shunshi's response to the meteor's display of endurance was him shouting in a combination of fear, anger, and disbelief "WHAT!? NO! There's no way that didn't do anything! What the hell is that rock made of?!"

Instantly realizing that the threat still needed to be dealt with, Genos started charging up his attack while Shunshi was just barely stopping himself from having a panic attack. Genos quickly finished charging up the amount of power that he needed to blast his incinerator cannon, which was made apparent by the large amounts of electricity sparking off of him, but, for some reason, he was hesitating to fire the attack.

In an attempt to snap Genos back to reality, Shunshi shouted at him in a concerned yet upset tone "Genos, fire the damn thing! What are you doing?! Are you okay?"

Before Genos could respond to Shunshi, Silverfang appeared on the roof, seemingly out of thin-air and stated very wisely "First off, he needs to calm down. I see he's lost his composer."

Genos and Shunshi both turned their heads around in surprise to see the third highest ranked S-Class hero that appeared from nowhere.

Silverfang then addressed Genos directly by saying stoically "Genos, you must put your mind at rest, you're far too young to be worried about failure. Whenever you're backed against a wall, you must act. Overthinking the situation won't change things. The best course of action is to just muddle through."

Genos considered this for a split second, while pondering to himself "Muddling through is the best course?" Letting this philosophy sink in, an image popped into the young Cyborg's head, an image of his Sensei giving off his usual lazy smile; this gave Genos the inspiration that he needed.

Shunshi, on the other hand, could stop starring at Silver Fang. If you were standing there yourself, all you'd see is a man in a frightening suit of armor and a black cloak staring down an old man, but underneath his helmet, Shunshi had the kind of expression that a child would have if they got to meet their favorite superhero.

Shunshi couldn't stop thinking to himself as he smiled in awe of Bang "OH MY GOD! IT'S SILVERFANG! He's one of the greatest, if not THE greatest martial artist in the world! And he's the third highest ranking S-Class hero! He's so awesome! If we survive this I wonder if I can get his autograph."

Back to Genos. The blond cyborg ripped his shirt off and, then, opened up his metal body, revealing some sort of orb with holes in it that was containing a ball of energy. Genos grabbed the orb and pulled it out of his chest with the only things keeping it connected being a large tube. The bicep on Genos' right arm then opened up and revealed a circular slot. Genos put the orb in the slot on his arm and quickly built up more than four times as much energy as before.

Pointing his arm into the air, Genos shouted to Silverfang and Shunshi as his energy continued to rise "Bang, get down! Shunshi, throw your attack... NOW!" Shunshi quickly snapped out of his admiration of Silverfang and replied "Wha-? Oh! Of course, Senpai!"

He tossed his largest energy ball yet as hard as he could at the meteor, while Genos thought to himself in a furiously passionate tone "I'll no longer consider the possibility of losing! I'll just pour everything I have... INTO ONE SHOT!"

Genos then fired a ray of fire from his arm that was almost as large as the building he was standing on. His incinerator blast absorbed Shunshi's large energy ball as soon as reached it, causing the blast of fire to turn pure white and become equal in size to the building.

The white beam of fire quickly made contact with the meteor as Genos, using all of the power that he could conjure up, started screaming at the top of his artificial lungs while he tried to use this fire blast to at least slow the meteor down even a little bit.

Due to the shockwaves being created, Shunshi had fallen onto his butt and was just looking at this amazing display of power before his eye in complete silence; that is, until he fully realized that the only reason Genos' attack had reached this level of power was because it merged with his light ball, so his inner-geek took over as he blurted out in enthusiasm and genuine passion "Combo-Attack: Incinerating White Heart Cannon!"

When Bang heard Shunshi say this, he turned his head to look at him and ask "Combo whatsit now?" Shunshi flinched at Silverfang's stare, before turning to look back at the meteor and responding meekly "It's nothing, sir. Just ignore me."

If you could find a way to look underneath Shunshi's helmet at this moment, you would see that his face had turned completely beat-red and he was sweating like a pig while thinking anxiously to himself "I can't believe I just said something so stupid in front of Mr. Silverfang... I almost want the meteor to kill me now."

Both Bang's and Shunshi's attention was returned to Genos when he shouted in frustration "IT'S NOT WORKING!" As soon as he said this, a small, and almost hot enough to be melting, rock fell from where the meteor was in the sky. This prompted Bang to point at the small rock and exclaim in an encouraging tone "Look! You took out a bit of it already! Don't give up now! If you just keep going, then I'm sure you'll eventually wear out that big rock!" Genos shouted frustratedly at this news "There's no way I can keep this up for that long!"

Bang was starting to sweat a bit, that is until his gaze shifted back to the meteorite, something he saw prompting him to shout "Oh, wait I think I see it getting pushed back!" When they heard him say this, both Genos and Shunshi asked hopefully "Really?!"

Unfortunately, Bang responded to them in an apologetic tone "Wait, that was just my imagination..."

Furious beyond explanation with that, Genos shouted at Bang in a furious tone "You old fool!" While Shunshi was just stunned silent from such a huge mistake in judgement on Silverfang's part.

As his power started running out Genos angrily thought to himself "So this... this will be my grave..."

The large blast of white flames quickly died out as Genos fell to his knees, due to there only being only just enough power left in his cyborg body to keep him from dying.

While on his knees, Genos explained to Silverfang and Shunshi in a sad tone of voice "There is only a few more moments before the meteor hits; both of you need to leave now... or you will both die."

As soon as Genos said this to the two of them, Shunshi saw Silverfang take half a step towards Genos while seemingly readying one of his hands for an attack, but, before Bang could even finish taking a full step, a familiar, lazy voice gave Shunshi an order "Shunshi, take care of Genos and this old guy."

Genos, Shunshi and Bang all looked behind themselves and saw Saitama walking towards them.

Shunshi quickly ripped off his helmet to make sure he wasn't seeing hallucinations, and, when he realized that his yellow-clad was truly standing before him, the young A-Class hero was overcome with joy at the fact that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him.

Beginning to tear up a bit, Shunshi blurted out in joy "SENSEI!"

Bang looked back and forth between Shunshi and Saitama in utter confusion before asking the bald hero "'Sensei'? Who are you? Who sent you?" Saitama calmly responded to these questions by explaining "I'm just a guy who's a hero for the fun of it."

Genos, who had gained an expression of relief and surprise, just kept looking at Saitama until he launched himself with a jump that was so powerful that it destroyed the stability of the building everyone had been standing on, causing Genos to look at the sky while exclaiming with a voice filled with joy "Master!"

Saitama, who was practically flying through the air, yelled to the meteor as he readied a punch "You're not... gonna fall... ON MY TOWN!" Saitama's punch sent him barreling through the meteor, causing the large rock from space to stop in a mid-air and shatter apart.

Bang stated in a completely amazed tone of voice as he saw the seemingly unstoppable chunk of space debris getting broken apart "He shattered it! Incredible!... Oh no!"

Shunshi, who was preoccupied with helping Genos stand up, didn't notice the fact that the fragments of the meteor were starting to rain down on the city, so he responded to Silverfang's reaction by asking him in a concerned tone of voice "What's wrong, Silverfang, sir?"

Before the elderly hero could explain the dangers of this new situation, the building that the three of them had been standing on got struck by part of the now broken meteor and, due to its already weakened infrastructure, it to started to fall over.

Genos and Shunshi started slipping down the side of the now vertical roof, causing Genos to state "The building is falling! Save yourself, Shunshi!"

Before either of them could fall very far however, Silverfang had rushed up to them, wrapped his arms around their torsos, and then jumped away with them while stating "It's not just this building, the entire city is getting bombarded with the splintered fragments of the meteor!"

Genos and Shunshi looked around themselves and saw that what Silverfang said was true, the entire city was getting showered with falling space debris in a rain of destruction.

Meanwhile. Saitama landed back on the ground and said to himself in a content tone of voice as meteorite fragments hit the city behind him "I guess that takes care of that." Another meteor fragment then destroyed yet another large building that was directly behind him.

The next day. Genos and Saitama were watching the news at their place, while Shunshi had decided to forget about fighting crime for a few days in order to see if he could help lessen the pain of those who were suffering as a result of the destruction caused by the meteor's fragments.

As Genos and Saitama continued watching the news coverage of the destruction in Z-City, the young cyborg commented in a slightly disgusted tone "Would you look at all of this carnage. If only the Hero Association had called you to help instead of me, Master; if you had been assigned to work with Bofoy, then all of the damage could have been minimized." Saitama, who was laying on his side and reading manga while also listening to the news, responded to Genos' comment in his usual emotionless voice, but with a slightly happy tint added into it "But you said that Metal Knight guy wasn't willing to work together, there'd be no point in it anyway. So stop worrying about it, I think we kept the damage to a minimum. Since no one died, we should just call it a win."

Genos started intensely analyzing Saitama's words in his head and, then, thought to himself in his usual overly dramatic tone "He is right. Master's punch greatly reduced the meteor's destructive power. If Sensei hadn't been there then the shockwaves from the meteor could have destroyed everything for nearly a hundred miles, I shutter to think what kind of damage the physical force of such a disaster would cause. The fact that Sensei's punch alone is what stopped the meteor is nothing short of a miracle; I would not be surprised if Master is talked about for years to come, praising him as a man of courage... But Master has no idea, some are even making him out to be the bad guy for causing the partial destruction of Z-City, despite saving it as a whole... No, I should not mention it to him."

Just as Genos finished his thought, Saitama asked his student a question in an honestly curious tone "By the way, do you think what happened moved us up in the rankings?" Letting go of his concerns for now, Genos quickly replied to this by saying "Yes it did. Shunshi moved up from A-Class rank 10 to rank 8, I was elevated from S-Class rank 17 to 16, Metal Knight was moved from rank 7 to rank 6 in S-Class, and as for you, Master, you shot up from C-Class rank 342 up to rank 5."

When informed of his high level promotion in rank, Saitama gained a completely dumbfounded look on his face before asking in disbelief "Number 5?! From 342 to 5?! Whoa, what the Hell!? That's crazy!"

Genos, who was now wearing an out of character smile, explained to Saitama "Well, your performance was actually worthy of a promotion to A-Class or even S-Class, I mean the disaster level for this was Dragon after all."

Saitama, who now looked more excited than he had in ages, asked in an uncharacteristically giddy tone "Yeah, really?" Genos responded to this in a happy tone "If there had been no damage, I'm sure you would be S-Class rank 5. A feet like destroying that meteor alone earns a promotion from C-Class to A-Class, at the very least, but I assume that the Hero Association believes that Metal Knight and I had more to do with the meteor's destruction than we truly did."

After receiving this explanation, Saitama asked another question of his student that had been bugging him for some time now "So... Whenever some big threat is on the news, they always give it a disaster level of demon or tiger or something like that. Does disaster level mean something?"

Genos, who now looked more than just a little surprised, responded calmly "Yes, it does. Wolf: An entity or group that might be dangerous. Tiger: An entity or group that threatens a large group of people. Demon: A disaster or entity that could destroy an entire city. Dragon: A disaster or entity that could destroy multiple cities. God: A disaster that threatens the survival of the Human race as a whole."

Genos handed Saitama a pamphlet that showed off some of the different monsters that were in each Disaster Level, causing Saitama to comment with a notable amount of interest "Wow, I had no idea."

Genos then continued to explain "I believe heroes take Disaster Levels into consideration when deciding whether or not to respond to a call, but I guess such things do not matter to you."

Saitama responded to this in a matter-of-fact tone "Well of course they don't. If the heroes run and hide, then who's left to help people?"

Awe-struck by his master's words, Genos suddenly started writing down notes in one of his little booklets faster than a normal person could even see. While watching Genos preform this strange act, Saitama couldn't help but ask "Uh... Genos, what are you doing?" Genos responded to this in a very serious tone of voice "I must record your words of wisdom!"

Saitama quickly chose to just ignore Genos' odd actions in order to ponder to himself "All things considered, I didn't have to do much to get such a large boost in rankings... Right! I'll be out for a bit."

Having taken a second to process what Saitama said, Genose stopped writing in his book, turned to Saitama, who had somehow already changed into his hero outfit, and said "Hold on, Sensei, I'm coming with you." Saitama just adjusted his belt and calmly replied "You stay here, if something heroic happens, you'll get all the credit again."

The bald hero then slipped his red boots on and went out the door, leaving behind a concerned cyborg.

Meanwhile, in the wrecked ruins of Z-City. Shunshi had spent all of this day going to each person he could find that was trying to salvage what they could from their homes. He was doing this in order to offer help by lifting heavy objects off of peoples' belongings or retrieve things from arias that had become too dangerous for normal people. So far, the only intact objects he managed to recover was the motorcycle of a man who's garage had a boulder on it, a slightly ripped up teddy bear from a little girl's room that had been mostly crushed, and what wasn't crushed was filled with rubble, he also he had also recovered someone's mini-fridge, an old man's walker, a large amount of food and water that he hopped everyone would share, and, as for right now, he was currently making good use of the claws on his suit to help him dig through rubble in the backyard of a suburban family, because the family's youngest son had begged him to save his dog, which had gotten left behind due to the hurry his family was in to escape from the meteorite when the warning was sounded.

While digging through the rubble, Shunshi thought to himself in a depressed tone "Why am I doing this?... This puppy's probably dead... poor thing... The kid's gonna be really broken up when I find his dog's corpse... Guess that's better than the kid hatting me and his family for not doing anything to find his dog... Wait, what's that sound?"

Stopping his digging for a moment, Shunshi heard what sounded like the faint noise of a dog whining, so he started digging again at even faster speeds, faster and faster until he found a little cave of sorts that had formed around a small dog with a broken leg, along with a few other minor injuries.

Shunshi took off his helmet so that he wouldn't scare the small animal, gently picked it up, and then carried it over to its family as quickly as he could without making the poor thing's injuries any worse.

When Shunshi returned to the family with their dog, he was met with mixed reactions; the parents were completely shocked that the dog was still alive, while the son was overcome with the joy and sadness that came with getting his best friend back, but seeing the bad condition the little guy was in.

The young boy was gently cradling his small, injured dog in his arms and heavily crying while saying to Shunshi "Thank you, mister! You saved Blazer!... He looks really hurt. Is he gonna be OK?!"

Smiling softly, Shunshi placed his hand, which still had a gauntlet on it, on the boy's head and answered him in a reassuring tone "Don't worry, bud. He's just a little hurt. Just get him to a vet and I'm sure he'll be fine in no time." The boy sniffled a bit while trying to stop his own crying before he replied "(sniff) Thanks, mister."

The mother crouched down and hugged her son in order to help him calm down, while the father placed his hand on Shunshi's shoulder and said to him in an honest tone "I can't thank you enough for helping save my son's dog. You're a real hero." Overcome with how flattered he was to get a complement like this, Shunshi responded in his usual humble tone "I appreciate that, sir, but all I did was help out a hurt dog, anyone would've done that."

The father smiled and said to Shunshi in an insistent tone "Well, you're still a hero in my book." Shunshi blushed a bit at this and stumbled for words while averting eye contact "I... Um... Thank you... I need to go get my helmet before someone tries to take it; goodbye."

Shunshi then started jumping and running as fast and as far as he could in the direction of where he dug out the dog.

While jumping through the air, Shunshi couldn't help but think about what that man just said to him "I'm a hero in his book... Huh." Thought Shunshi in an extremely happy tone.

After landing where he dug up the dog, Shunshi felt something wet on his face, so he wiped it off, only for more of this strange wet substance to pour down his cheeks. Shunshi quickly realized that these were tears running down his face, but not just any tears, these were tears off joy.

Shunshi thought to himself in a mixture of joy and uncertainty as he looked at one of the tears he had wiped onto his gauntlet "Am I... Have I finally become a real hero?"

The humble hero let it sink into himself that there are people who actually thought of him as a hero now. He let himself get embraced in this wonderful, almost heavenly feeling for a while, that is until he noticed that the place he had left his helmet was strangely devoid of any headgear.

Overcome with anger, Shunshi screamed to himself in a frustrated tone "Did some ACTUALLY take my helmet?! I was just kidding about that!... Well that killed the mood... Better go find it or Saitama-Sensei will never forgive me for loosing such an important part of my armor." Shunshi gained an annoyed look on his face, before he threw his hood over his head and began his search for the helmet thief.

Meanwhile, about a dozen blocks away from where Shunshi's helmet had been stolen. Saitama had left for his walk, expecting to get a bit of enjoyment out of it, but his mood was ruined when he saw the horrible state that Z-City was in.

While looking at the destroyed buildings and streets, and people desperately trying to find whatever was leftover from their destroyed lives, Saitama commented in a somewhat depressed tone "Man, this place is a total wreck."

Saitama continued on his walk and eventually noticed a destroyed supermarket.

Due to having genuine affection for this place, Saitama thought to himself in a slightly upset tone at the sight of the destroyed building "Oh man, looks like my favorite supermarket got destroyed." The bald hero then shifted his gaze to an intact apartment building that was standing next to the destroyed supermarket, before thinking "And the crappy apartment complex I got kicked out of... is completely fine. Damn!"

Before Saitama could take another step on his walk, the 'hero' Tanktop Tiger yelled down at Saitama from the top of a chunk of road that got turned on its side "Hey! You no good, cheating, bastard."

Looking up at him, Saitama gave the tanktopper a confused look before asking "Uh, who might you be?"

The Tiger groaned in frustration and stated "You know damn well who I am! I'm Tanktop Tiger!"

Tanktop Tiger, then, turned around and shouted at the top of his lungs "Hey, brother! It's that guy I told you about!"

Despite the ferociousness of Tanktop Tiger's voice, Saitama thought to himself in an unimpressed and confused tone "Seriously, who is this guy?"

Suddenly, another tanktopper with black hair and a black tanktop, jumped out from nowhere while asking rhetorically "Did I here you call me, little bro?!"

After landing next to Tanktop Tiger, this tanktopper in black stated dramatically while folding his arms "The hero known as Tanktop Black Hole is here!"

Tanktop Black Hole quickly shifted his attention to Saitama while saying angrily "So it's you, the hero who takes credit from S-Class heroes' work in order to jump up in the rankings!" Saitama simply responded to these dramatics by asking "What the?..."

Tiger quickly and angrily added to the exchange by stating "No one could have moved up through the ranks so quickly without cheating, you cheater!"

Saitama honestly had no idea what the two tanktop 'heroes' were talking about, so he simply asked them in his usual emotionless tone "Huh... So what do you guys want?" Tanktop Tiger smirked when Saitama asked this and then "Don't you get it!? We're here to beat you up so bad that you'll-"

Black Hole then cut his brother off by explaining in a very intelligent tone of voice "Hold on, little bro. That's not gonna work; the bastard won't learn from that kind of lesson. Let's make him really pay for this by using the most brutal method there is!"

All of a sudden, Tanktop Black Hole took in a deep breath before shouting at the top of his lungs "WAS IT YOU!? ARE YOU THE JERK OFF RESPONSIBLE FOR DESTROYING THIS CITY!?" Saitama responded to this accusation by growing a minorly concerned expression on his face and asking "Huh?"

Meanwhile. Shunshi had been spending a few minutes in search of his helmet.

He thought to himself in a very annoyed, yet somewhat panicky tone while continuing with his search "Oh, come on! They couldn't have gone that far with the stupid thing! Why would someone even want something like that?! What use could they possibly have for a helmet that practically looks like a monster's face?!"

While he continued to search around in frustration, Shunshi heard what sounded like a group of people repeatedly chanting 'give it up', so he decided to go and investigate the source of this commotion.

He wound up coming across a circle of angry people chanting 'give it up' to some other person that the darkly clad hero couldn't really see from his position in the back of the crowed.

While listening to the violent chanting, Shunshi pondered to himself "Sheesh, I wonder who these people are so upset with. Must be a real scumbag."

Before he could get closer to take a look at the, no doubt, evil individual that everyone was yelling at, Shunshi saw that one of the people who were chanting was holding his helmet and was using it like a bucket in order to carry around a bunch of random junk.

Out of anger, Shunshi quickly rushed up to the man holding his helmet and snatched it away before he even knew what happened.

The man who took Shunshi's helmet realized that someone had just taken his fancy looking, new bucket right out of his hand, so he turned around and snapped at the one who took his bucket "Hey! Who do you think you-" The man quickly stopped himself when he saw the black cloaked man who was clad in dark armor, covered white flames, and glaring angrily at him.

The man started sweating nervously before saying fearfully "Oh, uh, um... You can have it if you really want it, mister! I'm sure I can find another bucket." Shunshi quickly dumped all the junk out of his helmet and put it back on as a response.

He then stormed past the man while stating in an upset tone "HELMET! It's a helmet! And it was mine to begin with, jerk!"

The man then grabbed Shunshi's shoulder, and said "Hold on. You're a hero or something right?"

Shunshi jolted back around and asked "Wha- Yeah, that right... Why?"

The man exclaimed in a tone of frustration "If you're a hero, then go beat up that bastard who destroyed our town!" Tilting his head at this, Shunshi responded to this demand in a concerned tone "Um, sir. The meteor has already been destroyed... Did you injure your head or something?" The man shook his head and angrily responded "No! The idiot who got in the other heroes' way!"

Shunshi looked very surprised before asking with complete sincerity "Wait, Metal Knight's here?!"

The man looked flabbergasted at Shunshi's question, before stating "No, not Metal Knight, you moron! That dumb C-Class rookie with the bald head that took credit for his work!"

Taking a moment to process the 'list' of people with bald heads were present when the meteor was crashing, Shunshi eventually responded "Bald head... Wait, are you talking about Sens-?"

Before he could finish his sentence, an incredibly loud and booming voice shouted so violently that it cut off the chanting and all other conversation nearby "HEY, LOOK, YOU GUYS; HE'S GETTING READY TO FIGHT! NO WAY, SERIOUSLY?! YOU"RE GONNA TAKE OUT YOU'RE FRUSTRATION ON THESE PEOPLE HERE?! JUST LIKE YOU DESTROYED THEIR CITY! DO YOU JUST KILL EVERYONE YOU DON'T LIKE?! WE WON'T LET YOU DO THAT! WE, THE TANKTOP BROTHERS WONT STAND BY AS YOU RESORT TO VIOLENCE! IF YOU'RE THE HERO YOU SAY YOU ARE, THEN FIGHT US BOTH, FAIR AND SQUARE!"

Shunshi had finally made his way through the crowed and, to his horror and confusion, he saw the heroes Tanktop Tiger and Tanktop Black Hole getting ready to attack Saitama-Sensei.

While flexing and looking at the crowed, Tanktop Tiger saw Shunshi and thought to himself "Hey, that guy's the new A-Class hero, right? Well, I don't wanna take any chances..."

Tiger then pointed at Shunshi while exclaiming "Hey, you there! You're that new A-Class guy right? Are you just gonna stand by as this guy does whatever he wants?! Get down here and help us kick the crap out of him before he can do anything else that's evil!"

Shunshi didn't know how to respond in this situation, so he just stood there for a moment in utter confusion, until some people standing next to him started cheering him on to go and attack Saitama, one of them even slapped him on the back for encouragement, resulting in him stumbling forward a couple steps. This caused Shunshi, who didn't like to disappoint people, to walk towards Saitama as well.

Saitama thought to himself in a somewhat concerned tone "Is Shunshi gonna fight me too?... What's going on here?"

Out of concern for Saitama getting harassed, Genos disobeyed orders and left the house, arriving on scene at the edge of the crowed just in time to see the situation unfolding. He was about to walk over and intervene, but he stopped out of confusion when he saw Shunshi standing with Tanktop Tiger and Black Hole.

Shunshi, Tanktop Black Hole, and Tanktop Tiger, were all standing in front of Saitama. Tiger exclaimed to Saitama and the crowed of people while striking a dynamic pose that mimicked a tiger "I, Tanktop Tiger, who fights with the spirit of that great jungle cat, shale tear you to shreds!" Black Hole then followed this up by saying in an intimating manner while getting his hands ready to crush "And I, Tanktop Black Hole, who has a grip strength of 2,800 PSI, shale crush you like a ball of dirt!"

Shunshi, who was clearly uncomfortable, as anyone could tell from his body language, explained hesitantly to the people watching "And, um... I don't have a hero name yet, but I'm Shunshi and I... make... light... balls..." He then made a very small light ball in his hand as an example.

Before either, Saitama, Genos, or Shunshi could fully figure out this situation, Tanktop Tiger shouted while rushing at Saitama "We will punish all who stray from the path of the hero! Now prepare for pain! RRAAAAAGH!" In response, Saitama lightly tapped his fist against the tanktopper's face, sending him flying away and knocking him out cold.

Black Hole was shocked by what had just happened, but instantly recomposed himself and shouted while jumping at Saitama with the intent of crushing the bald hero's head between his hands "Damn it! You're dead!" But, before he could even get that far in the air, Shunshi, who had now fully processed what these two 'heroes' were trying to do, threw the small light ball he had made into Black Hole's side, blasting him a few feet away and burning his tanktop and torso quite a bit.

Shunshi, who had a very fearful look that was being hidden underneath his helmet, nervously exclaimed "I don't know what's happening, but heroes aren't supposed to attack each other... Please tell me I didn't just screw up big time, Master." Shunshi desperately looked over at Saitama, who responded to his student's plea for an explanation with a raised eyebrow.

Tanktop Black Hole was rolling around on the ground in pain while stating "Oh God, this hurts so much! I'm sorry I attacked another hero; I won't lie about him anymore!"

Shunshi was still confused as to what was going on exactly, but before he could ask any questions, Saitama calmly stated "No, you didn't lie."

All eyes quickly darted to Saitama when he said this. The world's strongest hero then exclaimed angrily "I'm the one who smashed the meteor! Anyone with a complaint, let's here it! Speak up!"

There was a moment of silence between everyone who was present.

Genos looked on with an upset expression that said he was willing to jump in to defend his master's honor at any given moment.

Behind Shunshi's helmet was a face that was desperately trying to figure out why everyone was upset with Saitama for destroying that meteor.

Eventually, one person in the crowed shouted "Be-... because of what you did, my brand new car got sma-" Saitama quickly cut him off by shouting furiously "YOU SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH! Why would I give a crap about how you're put out?! Tell it to the meteor, not me, jackass!"

This finale statement from his teacher helped Shunshi fully piece together what was going on. People were blaming Saitama for the destruction that the meteorite caused.

The very second Shunshi pieced this together, Saitama shouted "Listen up! I don't do this hero thing for admiration or approval or anything like that! I do this because I want to do it! So if you wanna blame me then go ahead, you baldies!" One of the people that Saitama was shouting at responded to this by weakly saying in a defensive tone "But your the one who's bald..." When he heard this, Saitama instantly snapped back at the guy "WHAT DID YOU SAY!?"

Deciding to step in, Genos walked up to Saitama and said "Master."

Saitama turned to look at Genos and said to him in a somewhat friendly tone "Oh, hey, Genos. Just give me a second, these guys are really-" Genos suddenly cut Saitama off by calmly explaining "We must go home, Sensei."

Saitama calmed down and looked Genos in the eye for a second before asking "Oh, you think we should? That does sound good, I guess."

Saitama and Genos both started walking away until the bald hero stopped, turned around and said to Shunshi "By the way, sorry you got caught up in all that, I guess. See you later, Shunshi." He then turned around and continued walking, with Genos turning his head for a quick moment to nod in approval at his junior.

Not caring anymore that people had insulted his Sensei, Shunshi smiled underneath his helmet and yelled to Genos and Saitama in a content tone of voice while waving one hand "I'll see you guys in a few days. I've got a lot of work to do here."

After Saitama had walked away and the circle of people had started to disperse, Shunshi thought to himself in a tone of wonder and admiration "Master... You truly are the greatest man I've ever met! I don't care what anyone thinks of you as a person, I know the truth and I promise, my loyalty to you will always come first."


	8. Chapter 8: The Sea

After spending three days assisting the victims of the Dragon meteor in Z-City in reclaiming as much of their lives as he could, Shunshi, feeling satisfied with the work he had done here, decided he was overdo to pay his Master's home a visit.

Half an hour later, at Saitama's place. Genos was sweeping the floor when he heard someone knocking at the door, so he went to answer it and was happy, or as close to happy as Genos gets, when he saw that Shunshi, who was dressed in his civilian clothing, had returned for another visit after being gone for so long.

The young cyborg stepped aside and gestured for Shunshi to come in, but before he took a step into the apartment, the hard working hero made sure to give a quick bow to his Senpai.

After setting the backpack that contained his hero-armor on the ground next to the door, Shunshi noticed that he and Genos' Sensei was not anywhere to be seen.

In a slightly disappointed tone, Shunshi turned to his cyborg Senpai and asked him respectfully "Excuse me, Genos-Senpai, but do you know where Master Saitama is?" Genos, who had already returned to sweeping, answered Shunshi in his typical, cold tone of voice "Sensei told me that he went out to try and complete his weekly hero work quota early."

Shunshi felt a little upset that he didn't get to see his Master right away, but he just took a deep breath, let out a melancholy sigh, and respectfully said to Genos "Well then, I suppose I should see if I can complete my training for today before Sensei returns. I had to slack off on the training regiment that he told us about for a few days so that I could help as many people as possible."

Hearing his junior say this jogged something in Genos' memory that he felt was important to show to Shunshi.

Taking off his shirt to avoid getting too hot, Shunshi began the first exercise of his his personal, daily regiment; upside down, one-handed push-ups. While he was getting to work on improving his body, the blonde cyborg that was sitting opposite to him quickly pulled out his phone and began pulling up the Hero Association website.

By the time that Shunshi had completed over two hundred fifty of these push-ups, Genos had walked up to him, shoved his cellphone forward and said, in somewhat of an demanding tone "I want you to take a look at what I have on my phone."

Shunshi instantly stopped what he was doing, threw himself back onto his feet, and responded with a slightly tired smile to Genos "Yes, Senpai? What's up?"

Putting his phone back up to eye-level with his junior, Genos showed Shunshi his profile on the Hero Association website while saying in what almost sounded like a proud tone of voice "Due to the amount of community service that you've done over the course of the past few days, your popularity has skyrocketed and you've moved up from rank 8 to rank 7 in A-Class."

Almost unable to believe what he'd been told, Shunshi smiled in surprise at this news, before exclaiming excitedly "Wow; seriously!? I got another promotion? I knew heroes could get boosted in rank through popularity, but I thought that could only affect C-Class and B-Class heroes. I had no idea that A-Class heroes could move up in rank based on popularity alone."

Genos, while putting away his phone, explained to Shunshi "From what I have learned in my research; normally, this does not happen. But with how active you are in your heroic duties, combined with the recent amount of community service that you have preformed; you have quickly become one of the most popular A-Class heroes out there."

While getting ready to get back to his push-ups, Shunshi gave his final comment on this news in his usual humble tone "That's pretty cool."

About an hour and a half later, Saitama returned to his apartment and gave off a confused stare when he saw Shunshi and Genos sitting across from each other and reading some of his manga collection.

Genos was reading Ghost in the Shell with a very intense look in his eyes, while a tired looking Shunshi was relaxing against the glass door that lead out to Saitama's balcony and casually reading Yu Yu Hakusho.

Saitama made his presence known to his students by greeting them with his usual emotionless tone "Hey, Genos, I'm home. I took care of some sort of squid faced monster, so my weekly quota is taken care of... I see Shunshi's here. That must mean you're done with the clean up stuff you were doing. Congrats, I guess... but why are you guys reading my manga?"

Bookmarking the page he was on and setting the graphic novel down, Genos responded to his teacher in an overly dramatic tone "Master, after I finished with today's chores, Shunshi suggested to me that perhaps you unknowingly incorporated techniques from one of the graphic novel series that you have read into your training, thus explaining your exceptional strength. So the two of us are studying them in an attempt to see if we can find a parallel between what you have shown us and the events in one of these stories."

Not fully understanding what he had just been told, Saitama gave Genos a funny look, before shifting his gaze over to Shunshi, who smiled innocently at his Master and, then, hid his face behind the manga that he was reading.

As Genos quickly got back to reading, Saitama walked over to the nervous Shunshi, placed a finger on top of the book's spine, moved it down from his student's face, and asked him with a curious and concerned whisper "Dude, what the heck is Genos talking about?"

Gulping anxiously, Shunshi responded to Saitama in a tone that a child would use when they thought their parents were upset with them "I... I just wanted to read some manga after I finished my training for the day, but Genos wouldn't let me touch any of them because they belong to you, so I made up a lie about you getting your strength from reading manga... I'm sorry, Saitama-Sensei."

After hearing this explanation, Saitama just barely contained his laughter, before moving his finger away and letting a surprised Shunshi continue reading. He, then, grabbed a random volume of Dragon Ball, sat down against a wall and started reading while smiling a content smile and thinking to himself "It wouldn't hurt to be lazy and read manga for the rest of the day."

The next day, at Saitama's. The world's strongest hero was once again reading one of his manga, but with little interest this time.

While Saitama was relaxing, Genos was drying dishes with a controlled heat blast from his hands, and while Genos was doing these chores, Shunshi was preforming handstand push-ups at lightning-fast speeds.

Genos decided to use his free hand to pull out his phone and check his Sensei's profile on the Hero Association website. After scrolling through it for a minute, he was happy with what he found.

While looking over his shoulder, Genos stated to Saitama in a tone of happiness that he only ever addressed his Master with "Sensei, it would seem that you've been promoted to rank 2 in C-Class. You are close to entering into B-Class."

Saitama looked over at Genos and responded with a small amount of interest in his voice "B-Class, huh? So that would mean no more weekly quotas, right?" Genos, still keeping up his out of character positive attitude, replied "That is correct."

Shunshi was about to jump to his feet and state his excitement over his Master's inevitable promotion, but before he could, Genos' cellphone rang and the cyborg quickly answered it while saying "Oh, excuse me."

The sudden noise surprised the older of the two students just as he was just about to flip to his feet, resulting in the normally agile young man fumbling onto his face instead of skillfully landing on his feet like he'd intended.

Despite Shunshi's somewhat amusing flop, Genos just continued speaking on the phone about going to J-City or something, while Saitama chuckled at his second disciple's mistake.

Instantly noticing that Shunshi was extremely embarrassed by his fluke, Saitama decided to try and ignore what had just happened by quickly turning on the disaster channel, but as soon as he did, Genos walked back into the room and asked Saitama politely "Master; the monster you defeated on the way home yesterday: by any chance, did it refer to itself as a Sea Folk?"

Saitama lazily replied to this while beginning to read a magazine "I don't remember."

Instantly after giving this reply, Genos and Shunshi saw that the news Saitama had just turned on was discussing the arrival of ten more of these Sea Folk in J-City.

Genos, in a minimally worried tone, stated to his allies "I was told that there is an A-Class hero fighting them all on his own and he is on the brink of defeat."

Curious if he could see how this A-Class hero was doing, Shunshi looked at the television and was made instantly worried by the sight on the screen; Stinger was fighting these monsters and he seemed to be in even worse shape then when they had finished fighting the ogre monsters from last week.

Watching someone that he considered to be his ally getting beaten down, Shunshi turned around and exclaimed in a concerned tone to Saitama "OH NO! Sensei, I have to go help!"

Saitama glanced at the hero on the screen and, then, asked Shunshi with a minimal amount of curiosity "Why do you sound so worried? Do you know this guy or something?"

With the concern in his posture having slightly grown, Shunshi quickly thought over his answer and replied "We worked together to fight monsters that one time the Hero Association called me in for an assignment, and he was being pretty nice to me at the time... I guess you could say we're acquaintances."

After quickly looking at the TV screen again, Saitama stated to his disciples in a semi-serious tone "Okay, let's head out."

Meanwhile, in an apartment across the city. The hero License-less Rider was listening to the same news broadcast as Saitama and his students.

He had just finished putting on his equipment and began running towards the door while declaring "I'm on my way, buddy!"

While a number of other heroes were heading out to try and lend their aid to the struggling A-Class hero in J-City; a heavily injured Stinger was standing in the middle of six of the Sea Folk's corpses, while the remaining four of these monsters were standing in front of him, all of them getting ready to kill him.

Stinger tightened his grip on his bamboo spear, let out a small laugh, and weakly stated "I gotta say, you've got spunk... ya slimy bastards! My beloved bamboo shoot here is stoked to battle enemies with some grit for a change! But I'm afraid it's time to end this!"

One of the Sea Folk, with a large amount of fury in his voice, tried to cut down to Stinger's confidence by declaring "Quite your boasting, Human! Your ridiculous fan club ran off long ago!" Another one of these large creatures added to it's brethren's statement in an equally threatening tone "Your death will be painful! For the taking of our brothers' lives, you will suffer greatly!"

Stinger, with his one eye that hadn't been swollen shut, confidently looked over his remaining enemies and spoke to himself "Four fish to go..." He, then, took up a fighting stance and, while spinning his spear over his head fast enough to propel his own body into the air, exclaimed wildly "It's actually a lot easier... WITHOUT AN AUDIENCE!"

The squid faced member Sea Folk that was there shot one of his tentacles at Stinger while he was in the air, but the A-Class hero countered this by thrusting his spear forward, piercing lethal holes in all four of the monsters, and shouting triumphantly "Sing, bamboo shoot! Gigantic Drill Stinger; Quadruple Thrust!"

After killing these monsters and landing back on the ground, Stinger managed to gain a smile on his injured face while proclaiming "I did it. I beat those bastards! Do you see that, new guy?! I'm strong enough to make it by with more than just popularity! Heck, these monsters were probably God Level threats, and I beat them all by mysel-" Before he could finish his sentence, another one of Sea Folk arrived and swiftly punched the A-Class hero in his stomach, lifting him into the air by the creature's fist.

This monster was noticeably different in appearance than the other Sea Folk; it was roughly three feet taller then the ones that came before it, it was wearing a flashy crown, a red speedo, and a royal looking cape, also, it looked closer in appearance to a Human then the previous monsters did, but it still had more than enough aquatic features on its body to be identified as a member of the Sea Folk clan.

This royal looking monster looked at the near dead hero that was on his fist, scowled angrily, and stated in a cold and bloodthirsty tone of voice "You know, when something as annoying as you exists, it's a pleasure to watch it die."

Then, as if God himself were warning the world of this creature's evil might, a powerful and loud roar of thunder and lightning exploded in the sky behind it.

Meanwhile, on the border of J-City. Saitama, Genos, who was carrying his arms-mode briefcase, and Shunshi were running at superhuman speeds along a highway in order to reach the sight that the monsters had shown up at. Unfortunately for Shunshi, just like when the three of them were headed for the House of Evolution, he was having to give everything he had to just barely keep up with his Sensei and Senpai.

Saitama, without turning to look at either of them, asked his students in an unconcerned tone "How much farther is it to J-City?" Genos quickly, but calmly answered this "We are almost there, but I am not getting any readings."

Shunshi, who was starting to run out of breath, glanced to his right and saw J-City's disaster shelter in the distance.

After thinking things over for a moment, the young hero shouted to Saitama and Genos "Hey, guys. Let's be honest here; if I were to try and fight alongside the two of you, I'd probably just get in the way, so I'm gonna head over to the disaster shelter and guard the people who are hiding there. Even if these monsters somehow slip past you guys and make it there, they'd probably be so exhausted that even I could beat them by then. I promise I wont let any of the civilians get hurt if you let me go guard them!"

Without so much as breaking his stride, Saitama just shrugged at Shunshi's idea and emotionlessly responded "Do whatever you feel like, man."

Genos then commented in a tone of approval "It does make strategic sense to have someone stay back and guard the civilians."

Having been given the okay on his idea, Shunshi smiled underneath his helmet, jumped off of the highway and started making his way towards the disaster shelter.

A moments after Shunshi had left, Genos stated to Saitama "Sensei, I shall scout ahead. Once the enemy's location is confirmed, I will let you know." He then fired off rockets from his back and blasted far ahead of Saitama.

Just as Genos blasted off, Saitama tried to ask him something, but his disciple was already too far away to hear him, so all the bald hero was able to get out was "Oh. Hey-"

Despite not getting the chance to say what he wanted, his attention was quickly diverted away by a voice from one of the Hero Association's P.A. systems announcing "Attention, this is an emergency announcement from the Hero Association. The Threat Level is Tiger. Repeat; the Threat Level is Tiger."

Meanwhile, at one of J-City's other entrances. License-less Rider was peddling towards where he heard the Sea Folk were last sighted, while calling the Association and announcing "License-less Rider here. I'm heading in now, give me the location!"

Unfortunately, the top C-Class hero's words were only answered by a mechanical female voice telling him "We're sorry, all lines are busy at this time."

License-Less Rider angrily closed his phone while thinking out loud "Where are they?!"

As soon as he finished his thought, a friendly voice called out to the cyclist for justice "Hey! Best forget about it" Pulling up to the source of the voice, License-less Rider found the C-Class hero Funeral Suspenders, along with a few other C-Class heroes in a pickup truck driving away with the rest of the fleeing civilians.

After the top member of his class had pulled up, Funeral Suspenders continued to explain to him in a care-free voice "C-Class heroes can't handle this one." Confused by this, License-less Rider simply let out a "Huh?"

The driver of the truck, D-Pad chimed in in a melancholy tone "It's true, the word just came down."

All of a sudden, the Hero Association PA system cut off the C-Class heroes' conversation by announcing "Emergency evacuation warning. The Threat Level has been raised from Tiger to Demon. All resid-"

As the announcement continued, Funeral Suspenders smiled nervously and rhetorically asked License-less Rider "See what I mean?"

The noble rider thought this over for a second and then gritted his teeth determinedly before, to the surprise of the other 'heroes', peddled off as fast as he could towards the disaster.

All over the city, the evacuation warning declared "I repeat, all citizens of J-City evacuate immediately."

Even the sea monster, as he walked through the city streets, heard this announcement, causing him to think out loud with a bloodthirsty smile that was filled with razor sharp teeth "Evacuate? The fools! As if I'd let even one of these apes escape my wrath!"

While he was saying this to himself; the A-Class hero Lightning Max was looking at the sea monster from the top of a nearby building through a telescope while commenting cautiously "I see, so that's the one that got Stinger... but he's also the last of them. Should I wait for backup? Stinger managed to bring down ten of these guys, so if it's just one on one, then maybe I can-"

Before he could make a decision, the sea monster had already moved so fast that it had found Max and gotten behind him, all the while wearing a sadistic grin.

Lightning Max, out of fear for his own safety, rapidly spun around in the air while spurting out gibberish, and threw out an explosive kick into the creature's chest, literally explosive.

The sea monster, while feigning being hurt, asked Max in a fake pleading tone "That stings. Why would you do this?"

Seeing this monster having been left unphased by his attack, Max quickly thought to himself in fear "How the hell did this guy get behind me?! Did my gunpowder charged kick not have any effect?! I can't win..."

The sea beast, as it's murderous eyes glowed yellow, politely asked the A-Class hero that had just kicked him "And who might you be?"

Lightning Max, while sweating in fear, responded with fake courage in his voice "I am... the hero called Lightning Max. Fight me!" The sea monster just tilted his head at this and asked with a smirk "Fight you?"

Max, while trying to mentally prepare himself for a quick brawl, thought confidently "I'll make a run for it as soon as-"

Once again getting his thoughts cut off by the sea monster, Lightning Max received a punch to his gut that was so powerful it sending him hurdling into the building that was directly across the street.

After landing in what looked like a manager's office, Lightning Max thought to himself in pain as blood poured from his mouth and the very building itself shook "What the hell just happened?... I can't feel my body."

Despite the large amount of pain he was in, Max was able to gather the strength that he needed to pick his head up and looked at what was in front of him: the sea monster crouching and grinning maniacally with a laugh that was a perfect fit for its horrible face.

Max forced himself to his feet while stating angrily to his 'opponent' "Dammit... You arrogant guppy!"

Two small jets then emerged from the hero's right shoe and went off, propelling Lightning's leg in a loop as he shouted ferociously "Lightning Flying Backward Roundhouse Kick!"

Colliding with the monster's face, the A-Class hero's shoe let off an explosion that was powerful enough to take out everything on that floor aside from the very support frames themselves. The explosion could even be seen from outside of the building as it took out every window on that floor.

As soon as the explosion died down, a hole was made in the wall of that floor, with Lightning Max having been sent flying through it.

Just as he was about to collide with the ground, a large, over seven foot tall, muscular man wearing a prison uniform and a white sweater with a heart on it, ran underneath the falling hero and caught him just as he was about to get crushed by falling debris.

After setting unconscious Max down, this man effeminately placed his hand on his chest and said in a flirtatious tone "I'm the S-Class hero Puri-Puri-Prisoner, and I escaped prison just to see you."

Prisoner's attention was shifted away from Lightning Max when he heard someone speak to him in a fake impressed tone of voice "Well well, imagine that. A hero serving time in prison. I followed your example and decided to escape as well, thanks for that."

The person speaking to the S-Class hero turned out to be non-other than Speed-O-Sound Sonic, who was now dressed in a prison uniform as well.

Without batting an eye, Puri-Puri-Prisoner calmly asked the ninja standing next to him "Prisoner number 4188. Your name's Sonic, right? I can tell you're surprised I know. I check up on all the boys who catch my eye. I'm serving a life sentence, because I can't seem to control myself. If I see a beautiful man, I just take him."

Sonic, trying to avoid having to look at this odd man, decided to look at what was behind him instead, which just so happened to be the sea monster.

Prisoner took notice of the curious look on the swift ninja's face and looked behind himself as well, just in time for the sea monster to address him and Sonic in a sadistically playful tone "Well well, more soldiers have come for me. Goodness, my fins are quivering!"

Puri took a step forward in order to get int his combat stance, all the while exclaiming in an excited tone "Oh my! I can feel the strength erupting out of him. Hang back, Sonic dear."

As the beast walked closer and closer, Puri-Puri-Prisoner's attitude shifted to a more aggressive one while shouting in an accusatory tone to the monster "A-Class rank 11 Sweet Stinger and A-Class rank 20 Lightning Max. I fancied both of those lovelies. Now that Genos has passed me, I rank lowest in my class, but I'm still IN S-Class, unlike those two you've defeated. Ill start things off at half power to gauge how much you can take!"

As soon as he said this, his muscles grew to the point that his heart sweater ripped off of his body.

Puri-Puri-Prisoner, horrified at what had just happened, shouted angrily at the monster "YOU MADE ME RIP THE HANDMADE SWEATER MY BOYFRIEND MADE FOR ME! I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU, YOU BASTARD!"

Sonic gave a confused, and almost horrified, look at this strange S-Class hero, while the sea monster itself simply licked its lips in anticipation of combat.

Meanwhile, at the disaster shelter. Shunshi had reached the outside of the building, but, much to his annoyance, all of the doors seemed to be sealed shut as long as there were monsters rampaging.

After trying and falling to get into the building for a few minutes, Shunshi thought to himself in annoyance "Dammit!... Well, there are still people in here, so I guess i could just stand guard outside. I did promise Sensei that I'd keep these people safe, and I guess it'd put less people at risk if I fight any of the monsters that slip past Master and Genos out hear rather then actually inside of the building. Alright!"

Shunshi then folded his arms behind his back and underneath his cape, stood at attention and smiled contently underneath his helmet while thinking proudly "Don't worry, guys; anything that might slip past you two will get trounced by me before it can even get within spitting distance of the people in here!"

As he mentally prepared himself for possible future combat, Shunshi looked off into the distance and saw some ran clouds starting to roll in, causing him to think in a much more annoyed tone "Oh, great! Looks like I get to stand guard in the ran, just perfect!... Think of people, Shunshi. Think of the people."

Over with Genos. The blonde cyborg was standing on top of a building and scanning the surrounding city, until he eventually found high combat readings in the direction that Puri-Puri-Prisoner was fighting the sea monster.

Upon finding these readings, Genos calmly thought out loud "Found them." He, then, took out his cell phone to try and call Saitama, but, much to his annoyance, the rain clouds above were causing too much interference for him to get a signal.

Genos angrily exclaimed "Dammit, I have no way to reach Master!... It cannot be helped."

Not discouraged by the absence of an unbeatable hero to back him up, Genos quickly jumped down from the top of the building and started making his way to the source of the combat readings.

Back at the S-Class fight. Sonic had a disgusted look on his face, as a slightly injured and fatigued Puri-Puri-Prisoner, who's muscles had now gotten so large that they had ripped off all of his clothing, had just finished a combination attack that sent dust and debris flying everywhere.

As soon as the smoke from the odd S-Class hero's attack cleared up, the sea monster could be seen standing with its bruised up arms held up in defense, as it metaphorically asked Prisoner "Are you done with your little combo, Human?"

The fact that this monster was relatively unharmed came as a shock to both Puri-Puri-Prisoner and Speed-O-Sound Sonic, both of whom gasped in surprise at the monster's endurance.

The beast then stated in a polite tone as Puri got his guard up "I felt that, just a little."

Before the hero could get prepared to fight again, the sea monster rushed him and hit him in his stomach, shoulder, and jaw with devastatingly powerful strikes.

While the prisoner was struggling to remain standing, the monster stated coldly "Hear me. The objective of a combination move is to finish your opponent. Each separate attack must be delivered with the intent to kill... like THIS!" The sea monster, then, unleashed a flurry of bone crushing and flesh ripping strikes, all finished off with a killer kick that sent Puri-Puri-Prisoner flying through a nearby building.

As rain started to drizzle down from the sky, the sea monster, while striking a dramatic pose, asked Sonic in a flamboyant tone "Isn't this fun?"

Starting to think that this sea freak might be a threat to him, Sonic responded to his rhetorical question by asking an annoyed question of his own "Alright, who are you?"

The monster took up a new pose that demanded respect while stating "I am the Deep Sea King. As lord of the Clan of the Sea Folk, I claim this world as mine to rule. Do you dare defy me as well, Human?"

Sonic let out a quick laugh before asking the Deep Sea King in a cocky tone "You don't honestly think you have the strength to rule the surface all on your own, do you? How pathetic." In response to this, the Sea King exclaimed "Oh, then I suppose I'll have to kill you."

Only becoming more and more annoyed, Sonic raised his hand defiantly at this and said "That's my line. It's a shame really; I would have let you live if you'd shown me the respect I'm due. I'm not a hero, but I think I'll still eliminate you."

The Deep Sea King, seemingly having ignored Sonic's threat all together, instead took note of the fact that the rain was picking up, commenting on in a pleasant tone "Ah, gentle rainfall."

Without a second of warning, the Sea King rushed at Sonic and tried to punch him into the ground, but the ninja easily jumped over the monster while criticizing "Too slow!"

While he was still in the air, Sonic started spinning like a wheel in the air before letting his foot collide with the beast, staggering it while exclaiming "Wind Blade Kick!"

Meanwhile, back with Shunshi at the disaster shelter. The young hero was still standing guard outside of the front door of the building, even though rain was now pouring down on him and getting his costume soaking wet.

Taking notice of just how wet he had gotten, Shunshi grumbled to himself out of aggravation "... I'm gonna catch a cold, aren't I?"

Back at the fight, Sonic, the midriff of whom's shirt had now been torn off, was using his incredible speed to effortlessly dance around the Deep Sea King's attacks while explaining calmly "It's useless. You may have power, but you're far too slow. You're never gonna defeat me."

As he got ready for another attack, Sonic exclaimed excitedly to the fish he was toying with "Thank you, Deep Sea King. Fighting something with power like your's just confirms how strong I really am!"

The sound barrier breaking ninja then jumped behind the Deep Sea King and onto a large building, as what looked like dozens of invisible strikes hit his highness.

Just as he was landing on the building, Sonic exclaimed "My moves are the fastest and strongest!"

The Sea King then bent over backwards in order to look up at Speed-O-Sound Sonic, all the while he was laughing as his eye was twitching out of anger.

After landing on the roof of the building, Sonic took notice of his opponent's crazy actions and asked condescendingly "Now what? Losing your mind?"

Sonic almost bit his tongue when he saw the monster jump at him at speeds comparable to his own, before trying to punch the ninja. Now somewhat nervous, Sonic just barely managed to jump out of the way of this attack as it took off nearly the entire roof of the building.

As the speed from his jump continued to cart him through the air, Sonic thought to himself in an almost frightened tone "He's gotten faster!" The ninja then jumped along a few more buildings before resting and thinking "He's stronger too. Where's this boost in power even coming from?"

Just as he finished this thought, a now even larger Deep Sea King, with a much more fish-like head, landed behind the nervous Sonic.

The Deep Sea King, in a chillingly calm tone of voice, explained happily to his scared prey "The air on the surface shriveled me up a bit, but this rain has returned me to my old self. Now your attacks won't hurt me even a little!"

Meanwhile, in another part of the city. License-less Rider was peddling through the streets as fast as he could in order to find the monsters, but, much to the law abiding hero's dismay, he hit a stop light, causing him to exclaim in anger "Rrrgh, of all the times to hit a red light!"

His attention was then pulled away from the light and towards a bald man wearing an unimpressive looking, yellow superhero outfit while complaining about one of his companions running off somewhere.

After quickly looking Saitama over, License-less Rider asked him "Hold on, aren't you C-Class rank 2?"

Saitama, having just noticed the rider, responded to him with a small amount of interest "That's right. You a hero?... Have you seen Genos, he's... I guess he's a pal of mine... Sort of."

Back with Sonic's struggle against the king of the seas. Explosions of dirt and debris could be seen in J-City as Sonic and the Deep Sea King were running through buildings.

After jumping through a window, only for the building itself to be smashed through entirely by the Sea King, Sonic thought to himself in fear "My attacks really aren't having any effect! Am I lacking in power?! I can't kill him unarmed. I need to retreat for now and find a weapon!"

In his attempt to run away and retrieve a weapon, Sonic started jumping from the building he was on and towards one on the other side of the street, but before he could get very far, the Deep Sea King's massive hand came out of nowhere, closed around the ninja and started to crush him while the king himself exclaimed "I finally caught you, runt!"

As the monster started squeezing even tighter on the maggot who dared to oppose him, Sonic's voice yelled out condescendingly "Snap snap crack crack." Being naturally made curious by this, the Sea King opened up his hand to see his crushed prey, only for there to be nothing in his palm but the remnants of Sonic's prison uniform.

Suddenly, from the top of a far away building, a now naked Sonic coldly stated to the confused monster holding his clothes "You wait right there. The next time we meet will be your demise!" He then used his blinding speed to vanish without another word.

The Sea King simply smiled at this and spoke to himself "No matter, the small fry can be let go."

Meanwhile, at the disaster shelter. A young boy hiding in there with his father asked fearfully "Daddy, are the monsters still out there?" Wanting to comfort him, the boy's father replied to his son by explaining to him with a reassuring smile "Don't worry, we're safe as long as we're in here. And besides, if it comes down to it, I'm sure all of us together can handle a monster or two."

Outside of the shelter, the rain was now coming down so hard that it was almost as if God was trying to flood the world with his tears.

As thunder and lightning exploded in the sky, a very annoyed looking, and soaked to the bone Shunshi clenched his fists and screamed at the sky "WHY?! WHY IS THERE SO MUCH RAIN?!" Just then, the Deep Sea King entered Shunshi's line of sight.

The high ranking hero was a little surprised to see that one of these fish monsters had actually made it this far, but he quickly managed to recompose himself, smile confidently behind his helmet, and think arrogantly "Looks like I'm gonna get a good workout in today after all! Don't worry, Sensei, I'll beat this monster in five seconds flat and make you proud!"

The Deep Sea King, having only glanced at Shunshi as the young hero's white flames overtook his body, looked at the shelter and exclaimed "I sense them... There's so many... It's coming from the building behind that soldier!"

Realizing that this freak was out for the blood of the innocents, Shunshi rushed at the fish monster, a light ball in hand, ready to take this thing apart.

A little over a minute later, the people inside of the shelter had been hearing a series of loud explosions and clashes going off on the outside of the building, so Sneck, Jet Nice Guy, Bunbun Man, and Allback Man, all of whom had decided to seek the safety of the shelter, gathered next to the wall in preparation to defend the civilians that were in there with them.

While getting ready to fight, Sneck cautiously said to the other heroes "If the monster gets through the wall, just follow my lead and do as I say. The four of us should be able to handle this if we work together."

Meanwhile. License-less Rider was riding through J-City at a steady pace with Saitama hanging onto the back of his bike.

As the two C-Class heroes rode through the city, Saitama asked License-less Rider in a slightly unsure tone "You sure this is the way?" The rider responded to this by confidently saying "Yes, since local residence are fleeing from this direction, we'll find monsters further up."

As soon as License-less Rider finished talking, Saitama saw the butt naked Speed-O-Sound Sonic run by them at a velocity that would have been impossible for a normal person to see.

Baffled by this, Saitama asked License-less Rider "Uh, did you just see a butt naked guy run past us?"

Completely taken aback by this strange question, the top C-Class hero could only responded with a "What?"

Without any warning, Saitama jumped off of the bike and started jogging in the direction that Sonic ran off to while explaining "This guy must've evacuated mid-bath or something... I'm gonna check it out, you go ahead without me."

Deciding that his bald companion knew what he was doing, License-less Rider nodded to Saitama and responded to him in a mixture of determination and slight confusion "Right, got it!"

As soon as Saitama was out of ear shot, the rider got a phone call from the Hero Association.

After picking up the phone, the rider said "License-less Rider here... Yes, sir. Correct, we're on our way there now... WHAT?! Did you say the shelter?! Ah, it was the other way!"

In his hurry to protect the civilians from the Sea Folk, License-less Rider tossed his phone onto the ground without even hanging up and started peddling as fast as he could towards the disaster shelter.

Back at the shelter. After a few more moments of waiting, the Deep Sea King, who's shoulder was lit up with white flames, suddenly came bursting through the wall of the building while holding a heavily injured Shunshi in the air by his broken leg.

Everyone inside the shelter was shocked by this sight, and, then, with pure blood lust in his voice, the Sea King exclaimed to the terrified people "One of your soldiers killed ten of my people; for every one of my dead people, ten million of you humans shall die!"

The civilians in the shelter, horrified by this demon's presence, started screaming in fear, all while the four heroes that had gathered next to the wall nervously got ready for battle.

As he was hanging in the air by his broken leg, Shunshi snapped out of his pain when he heard all of these people screaming in fear.

Summoning what strength he had left, Shunshi used his free leg and kicked the Sea King in his ribs as hard as he could, causing the beast to stagger a little bit and release its grip on the hero's broken leg, resulting in him falling face-first into the ground.

After face-planting, the dark-clad hero struggled to stand back up as fast as he could, while trying to balance himself on his good leg.

Taking notice of the other heroes that were present behind him, Shunshi exclaimed to them "All of you, get these people out of here! I'll hold this freak off for as long as I can!"

The four other heroes were paralyzed with fear for a moment, but Sneck quickly recomposed himself and shouted to everyone "You heard him! Let's go!"

Everyone started running for the exit to the building, but the Deep Sea King started charging at them while shouting angrily "None of you are leaving here alive!"

Before the Sea King could get very far, Shunshi tossed three light balls into his eyes, causing explosions that stunned him long enough for the young man to rush at him and punch him in his face with a flaming fist. He followed this attack up by forming as large of a light ball as he could in a short amount of time and, then, shoving it into the demon's chest.

The Deep Sea King was now covered in white flames on multiple parts of his body, seemingly keeping him paralyzed with pain, so Shunshi, feeling confident, tried to jump into the air and kick him in his face; however, the ruler of the Sea Folk had managed to recover from the injuries to his eyes much faster than anticipated and grabbed Shunshi's good leg before it could hit him, crushing it in his palm, just like he had the last one.

As Shunshi let out a howl of pain, the Deep Sea King laughed sadistically before deciding that he was feeling hungry. The demon opened up his jaw that was filled with razer sharp teeth and started moving it towards Shunshi's torso. Just as the monster was about to bite off the entire upper half of Shunshi's body, Sneck and Jet Nice Guy both rushed at the Sea King and threw punches into his torso as hard as they could.

While their fists were still connected to the monster's torso, Sneck and Jet Nice Guy both exclaimed passionately "What kind of heroes leaves their fellow hero to die!?"

The Sea King, more annoyed than injured by this combo attack, dropped Shunshi on the ground again, and threw and punch at the two heroes. Sneck just barely managed to move out of the way of the attack, but Jet got hit dead on and got split in half; fortunately, Jet was a cyborg, so he was able to survive the attack, but he was still passed out from the pain.

In a combination of fear and determination, Sneck tried to throw another punch, but the Deep Sea King threw his own attack, swiping at Sneck with his clawed hand, before the hero had a chance to defend himself, sending him flying into a wall, and knocking him out cold.

Feeling satisfied with himself after having dealt with the heroes, the Sea King began to rush at the civilians fleeing in fear, but, in a last ditch effort to save these peoples' lives, Allback Man and Bunbun Man rushed at the demon, meeting him halfway, but he just effortlessly kicked them out of his way, nearly killing them both in the process.

Just as the blood thirsty monster was about to reach the civilians, Shunshi, summoning all of his willpower, forced himself to ignore the pain he was in and launched his body through the air by using a light ball to cause an explosion underneath him.

Shunshi, then landed on the Sea King's back, focused his kie flames onto his cape, and wrapped his cape around his the monster's face, causing the beast to shout in pain as his head got engulfed in a sheet of white-hot flames.

Having become infuriated with this A-Class hero's persistence, the Deep Sea King grabbed Shunshi's cape, ripped it to pieces in an instant, and, then, grabbed the hero's torso with as much crushing force as he could apply between his hands, shattering nearly all of Shunshi's ribs.

After assuming that his enemy was dead, the Sea King tossed Shunshi's broken and bloody body face-first into a wall as hard as he could, destroying the jaw and nose-piece of the young hero's helmet in the process.

Meanwhile, at the street where License-less Rider had dropped his cell phone. Saitama, having given up his pursuit of Sonic, returned to where he last remembered seeing his fellow C-Class hero, only to find nothing but a ringing phone sitting in the rain.

Back at the shelter. All of the civilians were cowering in fear next to the unopening door of the disaster shelter as the Deep Sea King slowly walked towards them and asked sadistically "What's wrong? Are you afraid that I'll hurt you? Well don't worry... It will only be excruciating!"

Everyone turned to look at the hole in the shelter where the Deep Sea King had made with his entrants a moment ago, and saw the newest S-Class hero, Genos, standing there at the ready for combat.

Meanwhile, with Saitama and License-less Rider's phone. The bald hero answered the phone call from the Hero Association and was greeted with a representative asking him "License-less Rider, what's your location? This is beyond what you can handle. The monster even took out a S-Class hero! We need to assemble a subjugation squad and fast!"

Saitama, slightly surprised by what he had just heard, asked the man on the other end of the line "A S-Class hero was defeated?"

Not recognizing the voice on the other end of the line, the Hero Association representative asked anxiously "Who is this?! Where's License-less Rider?! What's going on!?"

Having somewhat pieced together who he was talking to, Saitama asked the phone curiously "Wait, is this the Hero Association?" The representative responded to this question in the same anxious tone as before "Yes, and who are you? Put on the owner this cell phone right now!"

Ignoring this man's second request, Saitama answered his first question "This is the hero Saitama."

Having heard the rumors about Saitama's test scores, the representative asked him with a minuscule amount of hope in his voice "Saitama?"

Back at the disaster shelter, just as the Deep Sea King was about to kill everyone, he was stopped by Genos' voice asking him "You are one of the Sea Folk, correct?"

The monster glanced behind himself, saw Genos menacingly standing in the hole that he had made earlier and asked the cyborg in an uninterested tone of voice "And what if I am? Are you another soldier that came to-"

As the Sea King was trying to finish his sentence, Genos glanced into the crowed of people and saw the half dead Shunshi lying on the ground.

Having become somewhat angered at the sight of his fellow student in critical condition, Genos, in a pillar of electricity, jumped down between the monster and the crowed while ferociously exclaiming "I am here to eliminate you!"

In an instant, the blonde cyborg fired off every jet in his body that he could behind himself and, while rocketing forward, punched the Deep Sea King in his face while setting off a small explosion that he had stored in his wrist, sending the monster, along with a cylinder of fire, flying through another one of the walls in the disaster shelter. The blast of fire that Genos sent the Sea King hurdling awaywith was so intense, that it burned holes in every building that was in its path for almost a mile.

After the sound from Genos' explosive punch had died down and the rain had become audible again, the young cyborg turned to the crowed of awe-struck people and calmly asked them "Was that the last of the Sea Folk?"

Instead of giving him a direct answer, the people just gasped in awe of the S-Class hero that had come to save them, before erupting into explosions of cheers.

Unconcerned with the praise he was getting, Genos simply thought to himself "They must have been quite desperate."

The young hero, then activated the life sign sensors in his eyes and looked over at Shunshi's body.

After looking at his junior's vitals, Genos calmly thought to himself "His enhanced healing ability seems to be keeping him from dying, but he is still in critical condition. I think I shall take him to a hospital in order to accelerate the-"

Withing this instant, the Deep Sea King returned.

Now back in his smaller form once again, he grabbed Genos' arm from behind him and hit the young man in the side of his head with his free claw so hard that it sent the hero flying into the wall on the other end of the shelter, ripping off the arm that the Sea King had gripped onto in the process.

After this surprise, brutal assault, the leader of the Sea Folk, who's left cheek had been torn off, exclaimed psychotically to the now weakened cyborg "Now I'm angry! I'll tear you to shreds!"

Genos, who was now missing his right arm and the right half of his false face, seemed somewhat unconcerned with his own injuries as he asked himself in a frustrated tone and struggled to stand back up "I let my guard down again... Why do I never learn?!"

While all of this was happening, Saitama was still just on the phone with the Hero Association representative.

This man at the association asked Saitama somewhat hesitantly "... You're C-Class rank 2; are you sure about this?" In his usual emotionless tone of voice, Saitama answered the question "Yeah. Hurry it up, it's raining."

After mulling over every accomplishment Saitama has achieved during his short time in the Hero Association, the representative looked to his superior for approval.

Instantly realizing what his subordination was asking, the superior officer calmly gave the ordered "Let him go, this may be our chance to see how strong he really is."

Having been given the go on this matter, the representative spoke into his end of the line and said "Saitama, here's the location. Now head there immediately."

Meanwhile, at the shelter. Genos had finally managed to stand up, even as electricity sparked off from his broken face.

Fearing for their safety, Genos yelled to everyone within earshot of him "Those of you who can still walk, leave the shelter now! I cannot promise that I will win. Run while I keep him busy!"

The Deep Sea King, as the hole in his face healed up, heard what Genos said, so, as a look of pure hatred and insanity spread across the monster's face, he rushed at the crowed of fleeing people, claws and teeth at the ready to rip them all apart; all the while, the beast was shrieking psychotically "None of you monkeys will escape MMEEEE!"

Before he could reach the people, the Sea King was stopped by Genos using the rockets in his arm to quickly close the gap between the two of them, kicking his highness in his face while tanking a counter punch from the creature.

For a brief moment, the two of them were suspended in the air, each of their attacks keeping the other supported up, but Genos, being the first of the two to snap out of this, slid his face away from the Deep Sea King's fist and down his arm in order to try and headbutt the monster, but the sea creature managed to dodge the attack while trying to hit Genos with his own flurry of strikes, but, despite the cyborg missing an arm, he was still able to perfectly dodge, block and counter each of these supersonic attacks.

Eventually, Genos managed to land another blow to the Deep Sea King's face, causing the monster to spit out some of his purple blood.

Taking the split second that his attack had bought him, Genos crouched down and uppercutted the Sea King in his torso, knocking him through the roof of the shelter with just the force of his attack. Before he could even try to recollect his senses, and as he was still locked in mid-air, the Deep Sea King was hit with a massive blast of fire that Genos had launched through the hole in the roof.

After getting badly burned by the flames for a few seconds, the Sea King flexed all of his muscles as hard as he could, knocking away the flames.

Just as the Demon-Level monster was about to go back down and fight the powerful S-Class hero, said hero appeared out of nowhere next to the Sea King, and shouted angrily "Lightning Eyes!" A huge burst of light suddenly came from Genos' yellow eyes, blinding the demon long enough to get axe-kicked by the S-Class cyborg on the top of his head. The attack dented the king's crown, forced his head into his torso, and smashed him against the roof of the shelter so hard that his lower half was buried in the roof.

Not willing to let up his assault for even an instant, Genos rocketed downwards at the rooted monster and started punching him as fast as his single arm could, all while shouting angrily "MACHINE GUN BLOW!"

The fury behind the young cyborg's attacks were so great that it smashed yet another hole into the roof of the shelter, all the while, the Sea King was pelted with burning hot, metal fists.

Before hitting the ground, the Deep Sea King, having apparently been unphased by these attacks, arrogantly asked Genos, even as the punches kept coming "You Humans really do like your combo attacks, don't you?"

After the two almost godly level fighters crashed down near the crowed of fleeing people, a cloud of dust and debris formed around the two of them. After the cloud cleared away, the people could see that the Sea King was back on the offensive, trying to land a punch on the cyborg hero, all while Genos was blocking the monster's fist with his remaining arm.

As the people continued to run away in search of an exit, a little girl in the crowed wanted to help the S-Class hero that had arrived to save her and everyone else, so, with all of her heart, she yelled words of support to Genos "I just know you can do it, Mr. Robot!"

Annoyed with this Human pup's audacity to speak during his battle, the Deep Sea King shouted to her while spitting out a blob of green liquid from his mouth in her direction "Quite!"

Genos knew that whatever this liquid was made from must be dangerous, so, letting his heroic instincts take over, he jumped in between the child and the blast of green goo. As soon as the liquid made contact with him, Genos' metal body started melting, just as he suspected would happen. Much to the horror of the young girl that he saved, Genos' remaining arm fell off of him and onto the ground in front of her.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the shelter. Shunshi had miraculously recovered enough from his injuries to regain consciousness. While looking at his surroundings with his barely functional eyes, much to the determined hero's horror, he saw his Senpai being melted away by the acid from the Deep Sea King.

Out of desperation to do something, Shunshi dug the claws of his gauntlets into the ground and slowly started to drag himself towards Genos while muttering through the blood in his mouth "Dnt wry, Gnsp, Il spv yuk..." (Translation: Don't worry, Genos-Senpai, I'll save you!)

As he was gasping in pain from his now half melted body, Genos could hear the Sea King laugh at, and walk over to him.

Rendered unable to defend himself, Genos simply stood there as the monster grabbed what was left of his hair, threw him against a wall with enough force to put a crater in it, and, then, followed this up by running at him in order to drop-kick him through the wall and into the rain outside.

The Sea King walked up to the newest hole in the wall, that he'd made with Genos' body, and jumped out of it while accosting his beaten opponent "If you had simply focused on me, that ball of acid would never have gotten anywhere near you. Instead, you chose to sacrifice yourself to save a runt. You're a fool, but I give you credit for giving me a few scratches." The demon then tapped on the part of his face that Genos had punched off earlier while continuing to comment condescendingly "Of course, they've already healed!... Now die."

Just before this seemingly unstoppable force of evil could put an end to the young hero's life, from out of nowhere, a voice shouted "Justice Crash!" A green bicycle was, then sent flying at the Sea King, only for it to harmlessly bounce off of the stronger than steel muscles on the monster's back.

In annoyance to this new distraction, the Deep Sea King turned to look behind himself as the veins on his head started popping out in anger.

But, much to the demon's confusion, the new enemy that had shown up appeared to be nothing but a slightly stronger than average warrior dressed in a some sort of cross between body armor and bicycle padding.

Not really sure as to what was happening, the Sea King simply asked License-less Rider "Huh?"

In an attempt to waver the Sea King's courage and reassure the terrified civilians, License-Less Rider took up a combat stance and passionately declared while trying to catch his breath "The cyclist for justice, License-less Rider is here!"

Recognizing who License-Less Rider was from his research into the Hero Association's website, Genos grew concerned for the top C-Class hero's safety. And even though, he was unable to stand at the moment, Genos turned his head to the rider and weakly tried to shout "No, don't..."

The people stuck inside of the disaster shelter quickly saw which hero had shown up to save them now, with one man commenting "License-less Rider... License-less Rider came out here save us."

In a mixture of fear and concern, another man standing at the hole in the shelter commented weakly "But he's..."

License-less Rider, then rushed at the Sea King and tried to punch him, but the demon simply stated "I'm bored already." And easily caught the C-Class hero's arm with one of his giant hands before he started beating him on the ground like a rag doll over and over again. Eventually, the arm of License-less Rider's suite ripped off, sending the hero flying into the air.

Deep Sea King curiously looked at the green armored sleeve in his hand, before turning back to Genos, smiling sadistically and saying politely "Oh, I'm sorry. I almost forgot to kill you!"

But the King stopped once again when he saw that License-less Rider had already gotten back up and was running at him.

When he got close enough, License-less Rider tackled the Sea King in an attempt to push him away from Genos, all while yelling with an injured voice "Justice... Tackle!"

Now getting angry with the weak hero's insistence on not dying, the Deep Sea King's face started morphing back into the shape of it's more powerful form.

The noble rider, while desperately trying to push the monster away, started saying "Nobody expects much-"

Before he could finish talking, he was swiped at by the monster he was trying to push back, with the attack having actual force put behind it this time, breaking away some of License-less Rider's armor, and heavily injuring his face. The Deep Sea King then turned to look back at Genos.

After getting knocked a few dozen feet away, the rider, as his faced started to heavily bleed, looked up into the rain and continued with what he was saying "Not from me..." He, then, got onto his hands and knees while continuing to say "They think a C-Class hero wont be much help..." He tried to force himself into standing back up, but he fell onto his face as more and more blood flowed out of his body and onto the pavement, while he continued to say "I know that better than anyone! I'm too weak for B-Class..."

License-less Rider finally found the strength to stand back up while exclaiming furiously "I'm not good enough, I know that much. I'm aware that I have no chance of beating you... No one needs to tell me... ANYTHING LIKE THAT!"

Back at the hole in the shelter. Without anyone really noticing him, Shunshi had dragged himself to the edge of the hole and grew even more concerned than he already was when he saw that one of his personal idols, License-less Rider, was standing parallel to the demon, heavily injured but still forcing himself to stay standing. Upon seeing this, Shunshi grew even more determined to lend what little aid he could, so he pulled himself off of the ledge of the hole and let himself fall to the ground below. After falling over a dozen feey onto his back, he painfully forced himself back onto his belly and began to once again slowly drag himself towards the hero and the monster.

The demon, who's body had now fully restored to its finale, fish-like form, once again took notice of the rider, this time from his yelling, so he angrily asked the hero "What are babbling on about!? Begging for your life!?"

License-less Rider, ignoring the Deep Sea King's demeaning words, clenched his fists and stated determinedly, while Genos was futilely trying to use the pistons in his shoulders to force himself back to his feet "And yet, I must try..."

The noble bicyclist, then turned to face the Sea King once again, took up a combat stance, and shouted passionately "It's not about winning or losing! It's about ME taking YOU on! RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW!"

The people who were watching this selfless hero from the shelter all started tearing up at his words.

The Deep Sea King, who's patience had just about reached its limits, declared "Enough of your rambling! It's time to finish you off!"

Realizing that this truly could be the end of his life, the rider simply gritted his teeth and clenched his fists tighter in preparation for his final moments, but, he was caught off guard when he heard the voice of a young boy in the shelter, being held in the arms of his mother, yelling with all of his might as tears welled in his eyes "You can do it! License-less Rider, you can do it! You're the cyclist for justice! You can beat him!... Beat that weird monster, beat him! I believe in you!"

Despite the unholy danger he was in at this moment, the words of this child caused a confident smile to form on the hero's face.

License-less Rider wasn't the only person inspired by this kid's words; in the shelter, all the people trapped in there started cheering words of encouragement for the hero with everything they had, including "That's right, get him!" "Yeah, do it!" "We're all counting on you, License-less Rider!" "Good luck! Beat him!"

After hearing so many words of encouragement from the people he had chosen to devote his life to protecting, the chivalrous rider pounded his fists together, flex his muscles as hard as he could, let out as powerful of a battle cry as lungs would allow, and ran at the Deep Sea King in order to make one final attempt at fighting this monstrosity... but, much to the horror of the innocent people watching, the Sea King quickly stopped this weak hero in his tracks with a single, albeit powerful, punch, knocking him out cold and sending him flying away.

Happy to destroy hope, the demon mockingly declared "Nothing but a pathetic waste of time... hmm?"

To the confusion of the Sea King and all of the civilians, an unimpressive hero in a yellow costume shown up and caught License-less Rider just as he was about to hit the ground, all while saying to him in a genuinely honest tone of voice "Nice fight, man. Should be proud of yourself."

The Deep Sea King was about to lean over and ask Saitama who he was, but he stopped when he felt a small amount of pain coming from the calf of his right leg. He naturally looked down to investigate the lower half of his leg, and was a little surprised when he saw Shunshi digging his claws into, and bitting as hard as he could into the leg of this monster.

The Sea King angrily asked the hero he'd crushed in his hand a few minutes ago "What do you think you're doing, you little flea!?"

Through the blood and Sea Folk flesh in his mouth, the overly determined Shunshi stated furiously "Ig biff yr fict lig opf fergh ws yd ts sp!" (Translation "I'LL BITE YOU'RE F***ING LEGS OFF FOR WHAT YOU DID TO GENOS-SENPAI!")

While all of this was happening, Saitama had set License-less Rider down, glanced over to his right, saw the half melted Genos, and yelled to him with genuine concern in his voice "WOW, HEY GENOS! Are you... still alive?!"

Genos, with his one remaining eye, looked up at Saitama and weakly said "Mas... ter..."

Saitama let out a sigh of relief at this, but then noticed something that looked familiar out of the corner of his left eye, so he looked to his left and saw a practically rabid looking Shunshi bitting some sort of fish looking monster's leg, even as blood poured out from all of the holes in his body that were being caused by his own bones puncturing his flesh, causing his master to ask with further concern "WHAT THE?! SHUNSHI?! Look at you! How are you even moving like that?!"

At the sight of Saitama, Shunshi snapped back to his senses, released the grip that his claws and his jaw had on the Sea King's leg, and manged to ask "... Sai... tama-Sensei?"

Within this instant, the Deep Sea King side-kicked Shunshi away and into Genos, causing the two of them to tumble in a ball around each other for a few feet before Saitama, moving faster then anyone could see, gently stopped the two of them, made sure they were still alive, let out another sigh of relief, and stood up while calmly saying "You two sit tight for a second. I gotta pound this sea freak, or whatever its called."

As soon as Saitama said this, the Deep Sea King appeared behind him while shouting "I heard that!"

He swiftly punched Saitama as hard as he could in the back of the his bald head, causing it to wobble a little bit as the shockwaves of the attack canceled out gravity and sent the rain that had been pouring onto their heads flying upwards.

Having become somewhat angered at this creature, Saitama turned his head to look behind himself and simply glared at the Deep Sea King. This surprised the monster somewhat, and as the rain started falling back down to the ground, the Sea King complimented Saitama in an honest tone "Impressive. Still on your feet after one of my punches! Clearly you're different than the rest of these trash."

In a tone of honest confusion, Saitama dismissed the Sea King's compliment by explaining "Huh? Your punch had no power behind it, that's all."

The Sea King mauled over Saitama's response for a second, before he decided to start explaining just who he is to the bald hero "King of the seas, lord of the deep, that's me! All life on Earth comes from the sea as if the sea were our mother! In other words, as ruler of the seas I am the absolute peak of a pyramid that includes every living organism on this world! Defying me means-"

Growing impatient with this fish guy's monologue, Saitama, while cleaning out his ear, cut the 'peak of the world's pyramid' off by saying "Yeah yeah. I got it, I got it. It's raining out, so let's get this over with."

Having endured enough of this small hero's insults, the mighty Deep Sea King let out a vicious roar as he threw his most powerful punch yet at this insect's face, only for the 'insect' to throw an even faster and stronger punch at the fish man's torso, a punch that was so fast that no one was even able to see him throw it. This attack put a hole in the Sea King's large body, annihilating all of his internal organs, knocking out one of his eyeballs and causing his crown to fall off of his head. In fact, this punch was so powerful that its shockwaves knocked all of the storm clouds hundreds of miles away.

As the dead body of the Deep Sea King collapsed to the ground, all of the people in the shelter simultaneously shouted "WHAT?!" Before erupting into huge cheers of gratitude and love for the bald C-Class hero that had come to their rescue.

Saitama, once again feeling unsatisfied by his opponent, payed no attention to the cheers and simply thought out loud "Well... that was lame. I kinda had my hopes up too."

The next day. Saitama, Genos and Shunshi, who seemed to be visibly upset about something other than the limp he was walking with, were walking along the streets of Z-City in order to get to Saitama's home, so that they bring back some groceries for the apartment.

However, Saitama, who was not carrying any of the bags himself, had taken advantage of both disciples' willingness to do just about anything he asked of them and had them carry his groceries for him; but after looking at Shunshi limp along for a little bit longer, Saitama, while nervously scratching his face, asked the older of his two students in a slightly uneasy tone of voice "Hey, Shunshi. Are you sure you're okay carrying things with your legs being as messed up as they are?"

Shunshi, after noticeably picking up his pace a bit, replied proudly to his master's question "Don't worry, Sensei; my healing abilities seemed to have gotten better since I joined the Hero Association and started training with you! Before, I would've been stuck in bed for two and a half weeks after taking a beating like that. But now, I'm already moving on my own again! I can carry these no problem... I just need another day or two before I'm ready to fight anything again."

In response to hearing the child-like innocents of Shunshi's reply, Saitama looked off into the sky while thinking in a somewhat guilty tone "Yeah, but... You're still not moving around all that well."

After the three of them continued walking for a few more feet, a black drone-type robot, with the Hero Association's logo on it, dropped a grey and black box in front of them and flew off just as fast as it had shown up.

Understandably confused by this, Saitama quickly asked "What's that?" As always, Genos was quick to answer Saitama's question "It is the mail. The post-office cannot come here, it is too dangerous, so the drone delivers the mail here now."

Being made minimally interested in this, Saitama asked "The post-office has a drone?"

This time Shunshi gave an answered before Genos could, somewhat annoying the cyborg "Nah, Sensei. It belongs to the Hero Association. They take care of the mail for any of their heroes who live in places that are too difficult or too dangerous for the normal mail systems to deliver to. I think it's mostly letters from the public, but you can get hero work from it too!" His interest having grown a little more, Saitama simply responded "Oh, I gotcha... Letters from the public... So like fan mail? Coolness!"

Eager to see what kind of mail important people like Saitama and Genos get on mail day, Shunshi excitedly exclaimed "Well, let's hurry back to your place with these groceries, so we can see what's in there, Saitama-Sensei!"

Without any hesitation, Shunshi dug his foot underneath the box and gently kicked it a few dozen feet into the air.

At first, Saitama and Genos were reasonably concerned with what the weakest of the three of them thought he was doing, but their worries were lessened, albeit only by a little bit, when the box came back down and balanced perfectly on top of Shunshi's head.

After making sure his balance was correct, Shunshi happily exclaimed "Let's go!" Before running like a school-girl in the direction of Saitama's house.

Confused about what was going on, Saitama asked Genos "Uh... Genos, what happened to his limp?"

Genos, being very confused himself, proposed the idea "Perhaps Shunshi's healing abilities are even better than even he himself projected."

As soon as this idea was explained, Shunshi heard an audible cracking sound coming from his legs, causing him to let out a yelp of pain before crashing face first into the ground.

Completely stunned by this, Genos adjusted his previous theory and explained to Saitama "Or perhaps he simply ignored it in the middle of all his sudden excitement..."

As the pain from his re-broken legs fully set in, Shunshi let out an even louder shout of pain, prompting Genos to comment in a somewhat uncomfortable tone "Perhaps we should go help him, Master." Saitama quickly replied to this in an even more uncomfortable tone "Yeah... let's do that."

A minute or two later. Everyone was back at Saitama's apartment and were ready to check out the letters, except for Shunshi, who was resting his broken leg in the corner of the living room.

After opening the box, Genos got out one letter for himself and another for Saitama.

Genos was extremely annoyed when he saw that the first letter he opened was simply a love-letter from a fan, complete with a 'kawaii' drawing of the viscous fighter's face.

Being too curious for his own good, Shunshi hand-stand walked over to Genos in order to see what kind of letter his senpai got. Quickly swiping the letter away before Genos could actually figure out just what he was doing, Shunshi instantly started to snicker at its contents.

Pointing at the picture of kawaii Genos, Shunshi stated to the real Genos in a joking tone while wearing a huge grin on his face "I never thought someone as scary looking as you could be made to look so cute, Senpai!"

Shunshi's playful nature instantly got replaced by one of fear when Genos pointed one of his fire blasters at his junior while stating in a calm yet terrifying tone of voice "It is considered rude to read other people's mail, Shunshi."

Genuinely concerned for his own safety, Shunshi dropped Genos' letter while thinking to himself "Okay... Looks like we switched back to scary pretty quickly."

Ignoring the 'friendly banter' of his students, Saitama nervously opened up one of his own letters while having his back turned to Genos and Shunshi. This, unintentionally, revealed the contents of his letter to the two of them: big red letters that read "NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOU, YOU COWARDLY CHEATING BASTARD! YOU F***ING BALDY!"

After reading this letter, Shunshi, angry at the person who would dare to insult Saitama-Sensei through a letter, was reminded of the one civilians who tried to make all the heroes that fought the Sea Folk lose face by claiming that the monsters were actually weak and that the fights the heroes put up were something that anyone could do, forcing Saitama to claim that he only beat the Deep Sea King because the other heroes had worn it down by the time he'd shown up, so now he would get all the credit. This saved the reputations of Genos, Shunshi, and the other heroes, while tanking Saitama's rep.

Now genuinely furious, Genos allowed for his eyes to glow yellow while getting up and stating in a growl "Dammit! I will find out who sent it, Master!"

Unfazed by this insult, Saitama simply set this letter down while stating in his usual emotionless tone "Wow, this guy must have a lot of free time on his hands."

Amazed by Saitama's calm reaction, Genos thought back to the events with the annoying civilian as well. While everyone else present at the scene now thought of Saitama as a dirty cheater, Genos and Shunshi knew their master's true intentions and that only reinforced their loyalty to him.

Back in the present, Saitama found one more letter for himself, exclaiming calmly "Hey, there's one more."

Genos and Shunshi were both peering over to see what this letter said, of note though was the fact that Genos had readied one of his arm cannons to burn the note, while Shunshi's white flames were engulfing his body in rage.

However, the two of them calmed down when they saw what the note actually said: at first it seemed as if someone wanted to write a complex letter, but they then scribbled that out and simply wrote "To the hero Saitama, thanks."

After reading this, Saitama commented in a somewhat intrigued tone "Someone's thanking me." Seeing this,

Shunshi happily stated "Of course they are. I'm surprised that crate isn't overflowing with letters just like that one." While Genos deduced "It must be from someone you saved personally."

After hearing his disciples' compliments, Saitama simply said "I see. Is there any left?"

Grabbing one more letter from the pile, Genos handed it to Saitama while saying "There is one more from the Hero Association."

In a tone of genuine surprise, Saitama asked Genos "What, seriously? Are they firing me?... Whatever, let me see."

After opening the envelope, Saitama's confusion only continued when he saw the letter inside: a message informing him that he had been promoted to rank 1 in C-Class.

Shunshi and Genos were both excited when they saw this, although, Shunshi was much more vocal with his excitement then Genos was "ALRIGHT! About damn time! If it were up to me though, I'd put you all the way up in S-Class, Master!" You could tell by the way he was pounding his fists into the air, Shunshi would literally be bouncing off the walls if he it weren't for the crummy condition his legs were in.

Genos simply smiled in the way that he only did towards Saitama and said in a flattering tone "Congratulations, Sensei."

Embarrassed by his students' praises, Saitama only responded to them by saying "Uh... thanks... You guys are really weird sometimes. Anyways, what am I supposed to do now?"

Shunshi was quick to reply in a happy-go-lucky tone "You just gotta go to Z-City's Hero Association headquarters and talk with the people running the place to get promoted to B-Class."

Nodding his head at this, Saitama stood up, stretched out his arms and calmly said "That sounds simple enough. I'm heading out, I'll be back after... however long this takes."

Deciding to finally bring up what had been bothering him, Shunshi shouted to Saitama as he started making his way for the door "Master, wait! There's something I need to talk to you about before you go... If that's alright with you."

Not really bothered by this, Saitama, with his normal emotionless face, replied "What's up?"

He took a second to think of how to word what he wanted to say, all the while growing a somewhat upset expression on his own face.

After many failed attempts at making a coherent sentence in his thoughts, Shunshi finally managed to blurt out "... I'm sorry I failed you, Saitama-Sensei! I was supposed to keep all of the people in the shelter safe; I promised you that I would! But even with the help of four other heroes, the sea monster completely overpowered me..."

The young hero, despite his legs having not finished healing yet, got onto his hands and knees and spoke in a strangely positive sounding tone of voice "If you don't want a weakling like me for a disciple then I'll understand you expelling me." As he said all of this, a painful looking smile was forced onto his face.

Saitama just continued with his emotionless stair, while Genos started to think deeply about what Shunshi was proposing "Shunshi thinks that Master should expel him? Perhaps I should reassure him that he... but then again, he is considerably weaker than me; I have had to save his life over and over again ever since we first met, and I am concerned that his presence is slowing down my training... Maybe it would benefit me if he left... Well, that choice is ultimately up to Sensei."

The three of them had been sitting in complete silence for a few minutes now, Shunshi resting on his hands and knees while holding back the urge to cry behind his fake smile the entire time.

Saitama eventually broke this silence by asking Shunshi "So, I've been trying to figure out what you mean when you said you failed me... What are you talking about?" Surprised and confused, Shunshi responded "I... I failed you, because I couldn't beat the sea monster, Master."

Tilting his head, Saitama spoke to his student in a somewhat confused tone "But... You never promised me that you would beat any of the monsters, and I never told you to either. All you said was that you were gonna make sure those people didn't get hurt... and none of them did, because you were able to keep the fish guy distracted long enough for Genos to get there, who also kept the guy busy long enough for me to get there. So you did your job. If that's all you wanted to talk about, then I'm gonna go to the hero HQ now."

Having been completely amazed by his Sensei's words, Shunshi finally broke down and put a hand to his face as he started crying while blubbering out "Th... Thank you for correcting me, Sensei."

With an expression of mixed emotions on his face, Genos walked over to Shunshi and, much to both his and Saitama's confusion, he threw his dark haired, fellow disciple over his shoulder.

Shunshi was going to ask Genos what he was doing, but before he could, the golden haired cyborg calmly stated "While you are out getting your promotion, Master, I will escort Shunshi home."

Embarrassed by this, Shunshi hesitantly said to Genos "Uh... Senpai, I appreciate the thought, but my legs will be healed up enough to start limping again in, like, ten or twenty minutes."

Unsatisfied with this, Genos responded in a calculating tone while keeping Shunshi on his shoulder "Even though that may be true, based on the speeds you were displaying on our trip to the grocery store, it would take you an entire day to reach your home. If I were to carry you like this, then we could arrive at your home in no more than half an hour."

Seeing the logic in this, but still feeling naturally embarrassed at being carried over another man's shoulder, Shunshi awkwardly replied "O- Okay! I... um... that makes sense. But I could just take a bus or..." He, then desperately started looking to Saitama for help in getting out of this, but, unfortunately for Shunshi, Saitama had already left the apartment, due to not wanting to watch this strange scene.

A little over thirty minutes later. Genos, who had been carrying Shunshi while jumping across rooftops, had arrived at his junior's home.

Genos carefully set Shunshi down on his legs and asked him "How are your legs now?" Smiling, Shunshi patted his left leg and answered happily "This guy should be fully healed after a good night's sleep, but the other one is probably gonna take until the end of tomorrow to finish getting better."

Nodded at this, Genos emotionlessly said "I will inform Master that you will be taking tomorrow off then."

He, then started getting some distance from Shunshi in preparation for another large jump, that is until he asked his cyborg-Senpai a question "Hey, Senpai. What do you think? Should Sensei have kicked me out?"

With his usual cold stare, Genos just looked at Shunshi for a moment before calmly saying "I find you very annoying from time to time, so I would have like it if he had, but Master approves of you, so I'll continue doing my best to get along with you."

Shocked, Shunshi was visibly hurt very deeply by this, but he still forced one of his signature humble smile onto his face as he said in an equally humble tone "Oh, I understand. Thank you, Senpai."

Genos, without really responding in any way, jumped far out of Shunshi's few.

As he slowly started limping his way towards his house, Shunshi decided to check his house's mailbox and see if there was something in there for him to get his mind off of what Genos had just said.

Aside from the standard bills and some junk mail, Shunshi found five letters from fans addressed to him, as well as a small notification letter from the Hero Association informing him he had been moved up another rank in A-Class, due to his bravery in fighting the Deep Sea King.

Shunshi just looked at this notification card for a second before sadly saying "Whatever." As he set this note on fire using his white flames, reducing it to nothing but ash.

After walking into the house, Shunshi heard his parents talking to each other in the living room.

Otkan, in a happy tone of voice, responded to something Hanja had said "Yeah, you're right. I was worried about Shunshi becoming a pro-hero, but ever since he insisted on paying us rent money with his A-Class hero checks, I think I've had a change of mind on the kind of future he could have with a business like this. With how much work our boy puts forth for this organization, our family will be swimming in money in just a little under a year; heck, he might even meet a nice fangirl through his hero work one day and start a family of his own."

A drop of embarrassed sweat fell down Hanja's face as she responded "Well... That's not exactly what I meant, but either way, I'm glad you're finally happy with our son's choice in life."

Shunshi made his presence known to his parents by declaring in a happy tone "Mom, Dad, I'm home!"

He set the junk mail on the end of the family room table while putting the fan mail into his pocket. He, then limped over to properly say hi to his parents.

Otkan quickly stood up while throwing open his arms and saying happily "There's our A-Class hero! What kind of heroic adventures were you up to today, son?"

Gaining a small smile from his father's genuine interest and support for his hero activities, Shunshi responded in a somewhat happy tone "Nothing today, dad. I still need to wait until the end of tomorrow for my injuries to finish healing."

Hanja let out a small laugh while commenting "I wish I could've healed that fast back when I broke my ankle." Remembering this event from his childhood, Shunshi let out a small chuckle.

While going to get some coffee, Otkan asked his son with slight confusion in his voice "So what WERE you doing today then?" Shunshi scratched an itch on the back of his head while replying nonchalantly "Just went to visit my Sensei and Senpai to let them know I'm not dead."

Otkan actually giggled at the way Shunshi said that for a second at this before asking "Well, if you need rest to get better, then why don't you go hit the hay?"

Shunshi thought this over for a split second, before responding "That's probably a good idea. I guess I'll see you guys later; goodnight." Hanja took a sip of her own coffee and happily replied "Goodnight, dear."

Later in his room, Shunshi went to lay down in his bed, but not before turning on the tabletop lamp on his desk in order to have light to read the fan mail he'd received.

He elegantly ripped open the first of the five letters and was amazed at its contents. The letter read as such: "Hey, Shunshi! I'm really proud of the work you're doing now. You keep saving lives on your end and I'll keep saving lives on mine at the hospital. Love, your sister Ishisu."

Almost crying tears of joy from getting this letter from his sister, Shunshi thought over the kind words he just got from his father and the words of encouragement from Saitama. Finally, he thought about the faces of everyone who has ever thanked him for his hero work, causing him to say out loud in a content tone "I guess things really aren't so bad after all. I'll patch things up with Genos-Senpai in no time."

He, then got to the next letter. It was a letter from a little kid who wanted Shunshi to make him his sidekick, complete with a crayon drawing of what he wanted his costume to look like.


	9. Chapter 9: The Invasion

After a day of rest, Shunshi's legs had fully recovered from being crushed like twigs at last, and he was on his way to Saitama's apartment in order to get back on track with his daily training regiment.

As he excitedly ran down the streets of Z-City, Shunshi could see his Master's apartment complex come into view, but he stopped his happy jog towards the building when he saw his Sensei and Senpai walking down from the second floor's steps, with Saitama turning a map over in his hands, confusion blatantly covering his face.

Ecstatically and quickly running up to his teacher and fellow student, Shunshi gave them a formal bow before happily exclaiming "Hello, Saitama-Sensei! Hello, Genos-Senpai! It's good to see you both again. Where are you guys going?"

The bald hero was wearing his standard emotionless expression, while also turning his map over again and again in his hands, as he responded to Shunshi's arrival without really looking up at him "Hey, Shunshi. Me and Genos are heading over to the dojo of that old guy... I think his name's Bank or Silver Spoon."

Utterly confused by this answer, and taken off guard by the underwhelming greeting, Shunshi cocked an eyebrow, tilted his head and asked "Huh?... Wait a second... So, you're gonna go see a guy who's keeping silver spoons at a bank... that's also a dojo?" Realizing how confusing his explanation must have been, Saitama looked up into the sky while scratching his head and trying to remember the name of the old man that he and Genos were heading off to see.

Understanding that everyone present had become horribly confused, Genos calmly explained to Shunshi "Master and I were invited to visit the dojo of the S-Class hero Silver Fang, otherwise known as Bang while in his civilian life. He informed us that he has something interesting he wishes to show us. He had also brought us to his dojo two days ago; we played games of memory and reflexes with him in exchange for some free meat."

The young hero's pupils dilated in shock when he heard Genos' mention Silver Fang. Lunging forward in excitement, Shunshi shouted to Genos with pure joy in his voice "SILVER FANG?! SERIOUSLY?! He's, like, my favorite hero in the entire Hero Association!"

Upon hearing his student's praise of the old man, Saitama grew a somewhat disappointed look on his face as he let his head sulk down slightly. This caused Genos to give Shunshi a bit of a stink-eye.

Instantly realizing why what he just said made his Master upset, Shunshi started sweating nervously before clamoring out an apology while waving his hands in front of himself "I- I, uh- I meant- I meant, uh, he was my favorite hero until I met you, Master!"

Quickly getting over it, Saitama let out an unconcerned sigh and straightened his posture out, before waving his hand at Shunshi while saying dismissively "Whatever, it's fine. Let's just go to the old guy's place already."

Smiling at his Sensei's grit, Shunshi readjusted the backpack that carries his hero outfit and started marching behind Saitama, that is, until Genos calmly asked his bald teacher "Master. Bang only invited you and I to come visit him. Would we not be putting him out if Shunshi were to come with us as well?"

Silently gasping, Shunshi could feel an emotion very close to horror spread through his body he heard Genos' question. He was almost about to say something to try and convince Genos and Saitama to let him come along regardless, but his respect for these two and their opinions kept him quite.

Saitama mauled over Genos' concerns for a few seconds, before shrugging and saying nonchalantly "I'm sure the old man won't mind. Let's just get going already. He said he has something cool he wanted to show us and I've got nothing better to do today, so I want to know what it is."

Happy that he got to tag along, Shunshi let out a sigh of relief, while Genos simply nodded to Saitama and replied to him in his standard, overly serious tone of voice "Yes, Sensei."

With their superhuman bodies, the three of them made it to the mountain that Silver Fang's dojo was at in less than an hour, but they still had to get to the dojo itself. After marching up the absurdly long flight of stairs that had been carved into the side of a large hill of which Bang's dojo was resting on top of, the group finally saw the building itself.

Saitama, with his students standing at attention behind him, lightly knocked on the door, with Bang answering it almost instantly. The elderly hero was smiling an expectant smile, with his eyes closed as he happily exclaimed to the people at his front door "Hello again, Saitama, Genos. Please come in. I think you'll really like what I have to show you."

Saitama let off a small smile in anticipation, took off his shoes and socks and, then, walked in. Genos repeated Saitama's actions, except for the smile, and entered as well. However, Shunshi was frozen in place at the sight of his martial arts idol, Silver Fang, standing right in front of him. Unlike the last time he saw Silver Fang, he was able to keep himself composed enough to not be smiling like a giddy idiot.

Noticing this new person that had arrived with Saitama and Genos, Bang politely asked him "Hello there. Who might you be, young man?"

After quickly piecing together his thoughts, Shunshi bowed to the elderly hero in front of him and answered his question in an out-of-character, serious tone of voice "I, um... I'm Saitama-Sensei's second student, as well as the new A-Class hero, Shunshi!... I know I wasn't invited here today, but I hope you don't mind that I came along as well, Silver Fang, sir!"

Bang put his hand on his chin, clearly in deep thought as if he were trying to remember something, before stating inquisitively "Hmm... Shunshi, I don't believe that I recognize that name. If you're still going by your civilian name as apposed to a hero name, then you really must be quite new after all."

Due to being a little confused and saddened that Silver Fang didn't remember him, Shunshi was frozen in place for a moment, before the realization of why his hero didn't know who he was hit him

He quickly reached behind himself, dug his hand into his backpack, and frantically explained "Um, uh... Maybe this will help you recognize me. We've actually met each other once before... I don't blame you if you don't remember, it was only for a moment and my costume keeps me completely covered up."

Having found what he was searching for in his bag, Shunshi pulled out the intimidating helmet of his hero outfit and showed it to Bang.

By quickly looking at Shunshi's helmet, Bang's memory was jogged as he smiled modestly and spoke in a pleasant tone "Oh, yes. I believe I remember you now. You were the one who aided Genos in his attempt at slowing down the meteorite... and, if my memory serves me correctly... You spent a large amount of that time glaring at me?"

As soon as he heard Silver Fang's accusation, Shunshi dropped his helmet in panic, and as it clanged against the ground, he let out a pleading explanation to the martial arts master of what he was doing that day "I promise that I wasn't glaring at you, sir! I know my costume is kinda scary and all, but It was just that it was my first time ever seeing you in person and I'm a huge fan of your's! I'm so sorry, sir! I didn't mean to offend you!"

The old man eased Shunshi's worries by waving his hand at the exasperated young man and calmly explaining "It's alright, I understand. Please come in. And if you don't mind, may I ask what rank did you start at and, if it's changed at since then, what rank are you right now?"

Having crouched down to the ground in order to pick up and stuff his helmet back into his backpack, Shunshi answered the last of Bang's questions in a slightly more casual tone of voice "Oh... um, I started out as number 13 in A-Class, and now... I think I'm number 7- No wait! I got promoted to number 6 a couple of days ago."

Satisfied with this answer, Silver fang smiled excitedly at the young man in front of him before saying "Thank you. I hope you'll be impressed by what I have to show you. Oh, also, I'm fine with just being called Bang." While walking past the S-Class hero, Shunshi replied to him in a content tone of voice "Oh, of course, Bang, sir. And Whatever it is you have planed, I'm sure it'll blow us all away."

As Shunshi was taking his shoes off, Silver Fang was sneaking a glance at him while excitedly thinking to himself "This is excellent! This boy practically idolizes me already, he was able become a highly ranked hero right off the bat, and his progress at climbing through the ranks of A-Class as quickly as he is, is nothing to laugh at... Not to mention, if he has a connection to Saitama, then there must be a few hidden intricacies about him that aren't obvious from just looking at him."

A few minutes later, after Saitama, Genos and Shunshi had gotten settled down on the floor of the dojo; Bang positioned himself in front of the three younger heroes while a late teenager with puffy orange hair and a standard karate gi accompanied with a white belt, sat a few feet behind the old man. All of a sudden, Bang started preforming an advanced kata of Fist of Flowing Water Crushing Rock. As he preformed his series of complex martial arts movements, what looked like glowing streams of water started flowing out of Bang's finger tips and into the air.

After finishing this kata, Bang turned to face his guests and politely asked them "That was the Fist of Flowing Water Crushing Rock. Do any of you want to give it a try? The three of you are strong and you seem like quick learners. I'm sure you'd get the hang of it in no time. Whatta ya say?"

Saitama had a somewhat disappointed look on his face, while Genos just seemed to be fully disinterested. Shunshi however, being a martial artist himself, looked completely awestruck at this demonstration of the highly powerful skills of Silver Fang being offered up to his Sensei, his Senpai, and himself.

After a second of silence, Saitama responded to Bang's demonstration by asking him a question in a disappointed tone of voice "Is this really the cool thing you wanted to show us? A sales pitch for your dojo? Thanks, but I'll pass. Genos, Shunshi, you guys try it out."

Shunshi was a little shocked to hear his master's dismissal of Silver Fang's offer, but his excitement over Saitama-Sensei giving him permission to train here heavily outweighed his other emotions.

Having become ecstatic at this chance, Shunshi stood up and exclaimed happily to his Master, accidentally cutting Genos off just as he was about to start talking "Of course, Saitama-Sensei! I'd love to combine your strength training with Silver Fang-Sensei's martial arts teachings!"

A large smile formed under Bang's bushy mustache, making it clear that he was very pleased to hear Shunshi's excitement for learning Fist of Flowing Water Crushing Rock, however, the orange haired teen seemed to have been made more than just a little nervous by this answer. Regardless, Bang and his orange haired student then looked over at Genos to get his answer.

The golden-haired cyborg, who was forcing himself to hold back his frustration at being cut off, calmly addressed the room "I am afraid I will pass this up as well. What I seek to learn is not the art of self-defense, but total destructive power." This answer, understandably, took away a bit of the smile that had formed on the face of the elderly martial arts master.

Intrigued by his junior's answer to this request, Genos turned to look at Shunshi and asked him with genuine curiosity and a small twinge of hope in his voice "Tell me something, Shunshi. Your destructive powers seem to be growing at a steady rate with the training that Master has you doing now. Why would you have interest in learning this martial art? Do you plan to eventually abandon Saitama-Sensei as your master in favor of Silver Fang?"

Having become offended at his Senpai's questions, Shunshi took in a deep breath and started to explain his reasoning and motivations in learning from Bang in a very passive aggressively "Well, Senpai; martial arts plays a huge role in my fighting style, and without it I'd probably have died long before I ever had the good fortune of meeting you and Sensei. I do plan to devote a decent amount of time to learning from master Silver Fang, but my main loyalty will always lie with Mater Saitama... By the way, if I may say so, I think you should reconsider Silver Fang-Sensei's offer."

Genos seemed a little puzzled by this, so he asked Shunshi a question with a heavy tone of confusion "Why is that?" Looking a little nervous for a second, before somewhat steeling his nerves, Shunshi responded with a semi-fearful seriousness in his voice "To be frank with you, with how often your body gets damaged in combat, you desperately need to learn at least the basics of self defence! I even watched video recordings of your fight with that fish monster while I was healing, and I honestly think that if you had been even somewhat fluent in martial arts, then you might have been able to kill that thing before it had a chance to spit acid at the kid."

As his face was visibly pouring sweat, Shunshi was shaking in fear at having raised his voice at his senior, a fear that may not have been unfounded.

Genos seemed to have become genuinely angered with Shunshi's criticism and, while clenching his robotic fist with a hint of hostile intention, asked his junior "You get injured just as often, if not more so than I do! What makes you think your criticism has a leg to stand on?!"

Saitama, who had lost interest in this exchange up until now, came out of his day dreaming to notice that small streams of steam were starting to come out of Genos' shoulders. Gaining a small amount of concern that he may wreck the old man's dojo, Saitama thought to himself "What the heck? What did Shunshi say to piss of Genos so much? Should I step in... Nah, I'll let them talk it out. If things turn violent I'll put a stop to it right away."

Gaining the courage he needed to speak his mind to his Senpai, Shunshi abandoned his sense of self preservation, took in a big gulp and shouted his reasoning to Genos at the top of his lungs "THE REASON I GET HURT SO MUCH IS BECAUSE I'M A WEAKLING! YOU'RE VERY STRONG AND COULD MAKE VERY GOOD USE OF MARTIAL ARTS IF YOU APPLIED YOURSELF TO THEM! YOU'D DEFINITELY GET BETTER RESULTS THAN I COULD!"

Actually shrinking back a bit at this out of nowhere display of assertiveness from Shunshi, Genos, with an utterly shocked look on his face, began to seriously ponder his junior's reasoning.

After an awkward moment of silence, Genos had fully calmed down, came out of his thoughts, and spoke to Shunshi with a slightly more respectful voice "... I will need time to think over what you have told me, Shunshi. Perhaps I will take up martial arts training in the future, or ask Dr. Stench to program martial arts techniques into my body's combat reflexes."

Feeling like Genos was no longer ready to tear him apart, Shunshi let out a sigh of relief that he'd been holding in for about a minute.

Happy to have gotten anyone at all to join up with his dojo, Bang, who had been left stunned by that entire exchange, placed his hand on Shunshi's shoulder and said to him in a pleasant tone of voice "Well, I'm glad that bit of drama was all sorted out... If I may ask, when do you think you'll want to start your lessons? Tomorrow perhaps?"

Having gotten somewhat used to being around Silver Fang by now, Shunshi, due to having a fairly tight schedule of hero work and exercise, gave his personal hero's question some serious thought.

After thinking it over for over a yet another full minute of silence, he replied in an very respectful and serious tone of voice "Well, I have to prioritize Saitama-Sensei's lessons first. That, combined with my hero work, I like to get in two to three hours of heroics a day you see... I will, unfortunately, only have time to come in for two days a week of three hour lessons or less... I'm so sorry. Will that work for you, Silver Fang-Sensei?..."

Bang gained a stoic look on his face, while the orange haired student behind him exclaimed angrily "Do you guys think that this school is a joke?! You think you can make progress here with only two short lessons a week! As Bang-Sensei's top disciple, I, Charanko, should beat you down fo-" Bang cut off his top student by sternly shouting "Charanko, enough!" Startled by his master's words, Charanko put his hands at his side and stopped talking.

Looking Shunshi in his eyes and said to him in a surprisingly happy, but still somewhat stern tone of voice "That schedule is fine by me, but your shortened lessons will have to be twice as hard as that of one of my normal students. And I told you that you don't need to call me Silver Fang; calling me Bang is just fine."

While standing up with a more serious and respectful posture, Shunshi happily corrected himself by exclaiming "Yes, sir, Bang-Sensei!"

While he watched Shunshi show Bang similar levels of respect as he would towards him, Saitama thought to himself with a small combination of amusement and hope "Heh heh, maybe now I'll get a bit of a break from him every now and then."

Before Bang and Shunshi could discuss the details of his future training schedule any further, one of the Hero Association's agents, exhausted from quickly running up the hill that Silver Fang's dojo was located on, threw open the front door while on his knees and shouted "MR. SILVER FANG!(huff huff) I was sent by the Association! An emergency summons has been issued to all S-Class heroes! Please come to City-A's Association Headquarters, now!" Quickly noticing the blond cyborg in the room, the agent, extremely relieved, asked him "Hey wait, you're out here as well Mr. Genos? Thank goodness, perfect timing. Since all S-Class heroes have been summoned, please come too."

While Genos asked the agent "Is this a threat level of Dragon?" Shunshi felt his stomach drop at this sudden summoning of the S-Class heroes, as he thought to himself "They... They're bringing together ALL the S-Class heroes? I don't know whether to feel excited by the idea of getting to meet all of them, or terrified that an evil of this magnitude exists!... Saitama-Sensei should be able to handle it though... Right?"

Shunshi was metaphorically shaking in his boots at this prospect, but Silver Fang simply let out a sigh of worry and frustration, before giving his orange haired student an order "Charanko, look after the dojo." Raising his fists in determination, Charanko responded to his sensei "Be careful, Master."

Turning around to look at Saitama, who was just now getting up off of the floor, Genos asked him "If they are gathering all the S-Class heroes, then they may need your assistance as well, Sensei. Will you come with us?" Saitama's normally bored and emotionless face transformed into a far more serious one as he replied in an almost inspirational tone of voice "I will! Nothing better to do. Shunshi, you gonna tag along too?"

Genos and Saitama turned to look at Shunshi for an answer, who had taken his shirt off and was holding the torso piece of his armor; earning him shocked and confused looks from everyone. As he started to put his armor on, oblivious to the odd looks he was getting from everybody, Shunshi responded to his Master's question excitedly "Of course I'll come along! Thank you, Saitama-Sensei!"

No one spoke a word as they all turned around and allowed Shunshi to get changed. However, Saitama did take this time to ponder to himself "Why am I such a magnet for weirdos?"

About an hour or so later, after having ridden to A-City in one of the Hero Association's limos, this small group of heroes approached the large building that they had been dropped off at, this city's Hero Association Headquarters.

As they all walked inside, Shunshi looking up to the top of the building and thought to himself in a tone of amazement "ALL of the S-Class heroes are gonna be here?... I don't know if my heart's ready for this."

Making their way up to nearly the top floor, this group, consisting of an old man, a blonde cyborg, a young man dressed in grey and black body-armor, and a bald man wearing an unassuming yellow hero outfit, met the first of the other S-Class heroes that had been called to this building, a gentleman dressed as a samurai who looked to be just a few years short of being middle-aged.

As this samurai chewed on a piece of long grass, he looked over at the group walking down the hallway, smirked and said happily "Aaahh. Hey there, Silver Fang." Seeming just as happy to see this man, Bang responded in kind "Atomic Samurai; it's been too long."

Continuing this conversation, Atomic Samurai commented "I figured you'd be here today. And this must be the cyborg named Genos and... Hang on, I don't recognize these other two."

Gesturing his hand towards Saitama and Shunshi, who was already standing at attention, Silver Fang explained their identities "This is the B-Class hero Saitama and the A-Class hero Shunshi. Saitama's great talents will surely place him atop S-Class one day, so we asked him to come. And Shunshi has shown some promise of his own. Just today he agreed to practice at my dojo semi-frequently, and I suspect that he may rise into the ranks of S-Class one day as well, if he keeps up his training that is."

Shunshi didn't know how to respond to such high praises from one of his two idols and, while his all concealing armor made it look like he was just standing firm, he was blushing with excitement, smiling like an idiot, and desperately holding back tears of joy.

While his student was busy standing there like a tree, Saitama smiled and offered his hand to Atomic Samurai while kindly saying to him "Oh, hey there, middle-aged hero dude, nice to meet you."

Not even a second passed after Saitama had finished his greeting before Atomic Samurai slapped away his hand and smugly told him "No hand-shake for you. I only acknowledge the strong, but some day, once you've climbed up to S-Class, I'll greet you properly." Walking past Saitama and lightly knocking on Shunshi's helmet, the Samurai continued to say "The same goes for you, but, considering your rank and the fact that you got Silver Fang helping you, I'd say you've got a much shorter climb to get there then our chrome-domed friend here."

Turning back around to walk away, Atomic Samurai explained one last thing to Saitama "Also, I'm not middle-aged yet, I'm only thirty seven."

Feeling a very strange mixture of glee and anger, Shunshi was gritting his his teeth and clenching his armored fists while confusedly thinking to himself "I can't believe a weakling like me is getting such praise from the S-Class heroes- NO, WAIT! How dare he disregard Saitama-Sensei like that; I should kick that jerk's grass-chewing teeth in!... BUT HE'S THE ATOMIC SAMURAI! I can't hate one of the S-Class heroes! God, what should I do?!"

As his hero-obsessed student was having an internal panic attack, Saitama thought to himself in slight surprise "Thirty seven isn't middle-aged? I had no idea... Wait. Crome-domed?!"

Just as Saitama finished this thought, and as Shunshi began to calm down, an aggressive female voice asked everyone in the room "Hey. Who brought these low-class nobodies along?" Turning their heads to see who was addressing them, Saitama and Shunshi saw, what looked like, a little girl with green hair and a black dress that very clearly showed off her legs, to the point that if she were to preform any extreme movements, then you'd be able to see a lot more.

Gasping in shock, Shunshi thought to himself in a panic at the sight of this little girl "OH MY GOD! It's Tornado of Terror! She's rank-... Wait, was she talking about Master and I just now?"

Continuing with her tantrum, Tornado addressed Bang as he simply walked passed her, "Don't you think mingling with the less-thans is beneath us?!", Now addressing the two A and B-Class heroes once again, "Even if you were invited, you should have been polite and declined. Hmmph! The nerve. The two of you are probably just here to get close to us S-Class heroes." Pointing her finger at them, she finished her speech with "You peons disgust me; get lost!"

With complete bewilderment taking him over, Saitama pointed his finger at this 'kid' while asking Genos "What's with the attitude from... this lost child?" Having walked further down the hallway, Genos turned around to answer his teacher "That is Tornado, ranked as number two in S-Class. She- Master, where did Shunshi go?"

As Tornado snapped at the bald hero for calling her a child, Saitama looked behind himself while asking "What do you mean? He's right... here?" Looking around the hall for a second, Saitama came to realize that his armored student had disappeared.

Saitama turned back over to stare at Tornado, as a blatant look of accusation covered his face, and asked her with a minimal amount of hostility in his voice "Hey, brat. Did you do something to Shunshi?"

Psychic aura began to resonate off of Tornado as she furiously responded "BRAT?! Who do you think you're calling a brat!? You should follow that armored loser's example and run off too!"

After hearing this, Saitama completely calmed down, stopped paying attention to the green-haired child, and told Genos "I guess Shunshi just ran off for some reason."

Having no visible reaction to this, Genos explained to Saitama "The S-Class meeting is about to begin, Master. I suppose we will have to inform him off what we learn here afterwards." Shrugging at this, Saitama replied nonchalantly "Guess so. He's an adult, so he can take of himself anyways."

Walking down the hallway, Saitama made his way to the meeting room, causing Tornado to shout at him in frustration "Hey! Don't ignore me!"

Meanwhile, just outside of A-City's Association headquarters. Shunshi was trying to catch his breath from running down well over a couple dozen flights of stairs, he thought to himself in a combination of confusion, anger, disbelief "That... That didn't just happen... Why were they so rude? Heroes are supposed to be humble guardians of the people. S-Class heroes should be the best examples of that. I... I want to meet them, but I can't risk all of the S-Class heroes being that way... I just can't!"

Wanting to clear his head, Shunshi decided that the best thing to do was take a quick walk. After pacing around the parts of the city that surrounded the Headquarters for a little over a minute, he noticed a man wearing something akin to a knight's suit of armor and carrying a sword, while sitting on a park bench and politely trying to get a college girl and her grade school brother to leave him alone.

Once again, overcome with his sense of hero-worship, Shunshi approached this scene and spoke to the man in a tone that he hoped would be disarming, while also giving him a small bow "Um, hello there. You're Atomic Samurai's disciple Iaian, right?" Initially taken off guard by his sudden arrival, Iaian raised his eyebrows in surprise at the man dressed in terrifying black armor, before calming down and responding "Yes... That's an interesting getup you have there. Who are you? A fellow hero perhaps?"

With a look of annoyance behind his helmet, Shunshi thought to himself, "What'a ya mean 'interesting look'? We're BOTH wearing suits of armor!", before replying pleasantly "Yes, sir! My name is Shunshi and I am currently ranked as number 6 in A-Class. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

In a test of the moral fiber of the number two in A-Class, Shunshi stuck his hand out for a shake. To both his surprise and gratitude, Iaian stood up and shook his hand while responding "I suppose it's nice to meet you as well... Were you that hero who tried to stop that big fish-monster by bitting it's legs?"

Despite the blunt way Iaian asked that question, Shunshi took no offense to it and replied casually "Yeah, that was me, sir. Pretty dumb, I know... So, are you here with Atomic-?"

Before he could finish his question, the college girl, while holding her brother by his wrist, stepped up to the two heroes and snapped at Shunshi "Hey! We were having a conversation here, before you rudely interrupted us!" Despite the angry tone of her voice, one could easily tell by her shivering that this girl was horrified by the appearance of Shunshi's armor.

Oblivious to the girl's blatant fear, Shunshi took a step back while giving her a more formal bow than he had given Iaian, surprising her, while politely apologizing "Oh, I'm very sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you and your brother, ms."

Pulling on his sister's arm, the young boy ecstatically asked her "Hey, wait! Can he be in it too? He looks really cool!" Perplexed by this, Shunshi knelt down and asked the boy "What do you mean 'Can I be in it'? What exactly is 'it'?"

Looking down at his darkly-clad fellow hero, Iaian explained what was going on, with annoyance starting to seep out of his voice "They've been bothering me to take a photo with them for some time now. But that's not the kind of thing I like to do."

Standing up while folding his arms behind his back, Shunshi spoke to Iaian with innocent sincerity in his voice "Oh, come on. There's no harm in giving people a hero they can talk to every once in a while."

Having heard this, the college girl quickly agreed with Shunshi's idea and eagerly looked at Iaian as he mussed this over in his head.

Eventually, he came to a decision "I supposes it wouldn't hurt this one time, but I don't intend to make a habit out of this. Also, lets make this quick."

Blushing with happiness, the young woman took out her phone and handed it to Shunshi as she dismissively told him, "Take the picture for us!", before rushing over to Iaian's side and standing uncomfortably close to him.

Noticing that her brother had yet to get in frame for the picture, she barked at him "Hey! Get over here, Conner! It's time for our picture with Iaian."

Looking over at Shunshi, who had taken off his gauntlets in order to operate the camera phone, the boy pointed to him with a disappointed expression and complained to his sister "But I want HIM in the picture! He looks so cool."

The college girl gritted her teeth at her brother's insistence at having this frightening looking hero get into the picture with her hero, while Iaian himself had already started to loose his patients with her. Realizing that everything was already about to fall apart, Shunshi quickly started thinking of a way to make everyone happy.

Without any warning, Shunshi took off his helmet, shook out his black shoulder-length hair, and quickly handed that piece of armor to Conner while telling him "Here. Just hold this and I can be in the picture in spirit that way."

The awe-struck kid looked back and fourth between the face of the cool looking hero and the face of the helmet that he was holding in his small hands, before smiling widely and rushing over to his sister, who was now blushing even more violently. Instead of simply holding the helmet in his hands, Conner surprised Shunshi and his sister by putting on this helmet that was far too big for his small head, causing it to tilt to the side.

His sister just chose to roll her eyes at this, but Shunshi, as he took the picture, couldn't help but smile and think to himself happily "Oh my God, that's so cute!"

After quickly taking several more pictures, Shunshi went to hand the girl her phone back, which she nervously accepted from him, blushing even more as his hands accidentally touched her's.

Despite his sister's new found 'appreciation' for this hero, Conner, who was still wearing the helmet, thought to himself in an unimpressed tone while looking at Shunshi's face "He looks cooler with his helmet on... Maybe he'll let me keep it!"

Seemingly exhausted from this ordeal, Iaian walked up from behind the college girl to talk to Shunshi, and gave him a put-out look, before telling him in a monotone voice "I suppose that wasn't so bad." Smiling at this, Shunshi walked around the girl, excitedly put his hand out in a fist for a fist-bump and rhetorically asked "See? It's nice to help people smile every now and again, right?"

Initially confused by this, Iaian quickly softened up, gave off a small chuckle and, instead of returning the gesture, he grabbed Shunshi's closed hand and shook it. As Iaian shook his hand, Shunshi thought to himself in a melancholy tone "Oh well, I guess it's baby steps with this guy."

A moments or two later, just as as these four were about to go their separate ways, an explosion aimed at the Hero Association Headquarters caught the attention of everyone in a mile-wide radius. Looking up into the sky, Iaian and Shunshi saw a group of monsters flying in the air and shooting fire balls at the Hero Association's massive building.

Turning around and getting on his knee once again, Shunshi put his hand on Conner's shoulder and told him "Sorry, buddy, but it looks like I'm gonna need my helmet back to deal wi-" Before he could finish his sentence, Iaian shouted to his fellow hero in a tone of complete shock and horror "SHUNSHI! Get up and look at this!"

After fumbling to get up and turn around, Shunshi looked into the sky again and saw an air-craft that was the size of a small city. The monsters that had been in the sky only a second earlier, were now falling to the ground as corpses due to another, even larger flying monster, having cut them to pieces. This new monster looked as if it were a pile of poop-brown flesh, that took the shape off a nearly seventeen foot tall man, with gargoyle-like wings and five Human-like heads growing out of one another on it's shoulders.

Not knowing what else to do, Shunshi got one of his light balls ready to try and throw at this gargantuan ship, but before he had a chance to throw it, a series of glowing lights came from the bottom of the ship, followed up with what looked like massive bullet-shells barreling towards the city. Finally, there was an atomizing explosion that leveled almost all of A-City, except for the Hero Association Headquarters, due to the dense materials used to construct the building.

Their ears were ringing so loudly that they were worried they may have gone permanently def. For a few seconds they couldn't see anything but bright light. A few more moments passed before Shunshi and Iaian slowly climbed out of rubble, ashes, and dirt, and onto their feet. A combination of their superhuman physiology and their armor allowed them to survive this explosion with no real external injuries, but possibly a few internal ones. Having recovered more quickly than Iaian, Shunshi walked over to him and helped shake him back to his senses.

Looking at all of the destruction and death around him, Iaian's face grew into a horrible scowl as he drew his sword, began walking, and snapped at a mortified Shunshi "Put your gear on! We're going to find and put an end to the one's responsible for this!"

Snapping to his senses at these words, Shunshi began to look around to see if he could spot his helmet. After only a second or two of searching, he saw a shimmering light coming off of something metal in the rubble near him. Walking over to the gleam, Shunshi saw his helmet and picked it up. Due to the fact that he had picked his helmet up upside down, he naturally turned it right-side up so he could put it on; this caused a small pile off ash to fall out of it.

Freezing in place, Shunshi realized who those ashes used to be. He remembered how, just a moment ago, Conner, this child, put on this helmet out of his innocent sense of admiration for heroes. Never would Shunshi have ever expected in his wildest nightmares that an innocent kid would have died, been reduced to dust in the wind, wearing his armor, armor that he'd made hoping it would help him protect the people of the world. Feeling as if he couldn't do anything else, Shunshi stood there and began to lightly cry, cry for the loss of this child, his older sister, and all the other countless people that he felt as if he'd failed to save.

Having fallen to his knees, Shunshi spent about a dozen seconds crying, that is until he saw an injured man in the distance, that Iaian was making his way towards, as he was moving a sheet of metal off of a hole in the ground. Having pushed it aside enough, the man reached in and pulled out his young son from the hole, hugging him tightly as soon as he did.

Wiping his tears away, Shunshi stood up and thought to himself angrily "What the Hell is wrong with you, Shunshi!? You're a hero! You should either be looking for survivors to save or the ones responsible for this to bring to justice to!" Having refortified his grit, Shunshi shook out and put on his helmet, hearing the screams of that man's son just as his armor slid back into place.

Turning back to look at them, Shunshi saw Iaian running as fast as he could towards the flying monster that had shown up with the city destroying air-craft, due to it having landed on the ground in order to kill two more innocent people.

Before it could attack the civilians, Iaian attacked the monster with a couple of inhumanly fast, but still precise, sword-swings, cutting off it's fingers and putting a deep cut down it's torso.

Feeling confident that he could handle the monster from here, Iaian quickly gave the father an order "Get your son out of here, right now!" The father took Iaian's advice and quickly ran with his child to safety.

As he watched these two get away to safety, Iaian let a smile form on his face. However, this brief moment of watching the two people he saved may have been the swordsman's undoing, because, within that split second, that monster, despite its injuries, appeared behind Iaian and was about to crush his head between its massive hands.

Within the nanoseconds where the monster's hands were about to crush Iaian's head, a few of Shunshi's light balls hit this creature in its back, resulting in several powerful explosions, ripping away large amounts of its flesh and stunning it long enough for Iaian to get away unscathed. However, he had moved so quickly when he ducked out of the way that his helmet had actually slipped off of his head.

Knowing that this monster was connected to the ship that had just destroyed the city, Iaian was about to scold it in preparation for another attack with his sword, but he stopped when Shunshi, moving faster than he could follow with his eyes, jumped at the creature like a torpedo moving through the air, with his clawed hands sticking out in front of him, and put a hole in it's torso that was the size of his body. In the few seconds that his body was still in the air, Shunshi flipped around so that he would land on his feet and next to Iaian. As the creature was stumbling around from the initial shock of this attack, Iaian wasted no time and took this opportunity to slash at it vertically, nearly splitting its entire torso into two pieces.

Much to the surprise of these two high-ranking A-Class heroes, the normally lethal injuries that they'd just inflicted on this monster were already beginning to heal. While its torso was reconnecting, the monster's heads began talking with one voice; each head starting a new sentence as it went "More survivors. Their attacks are strong. We will heal. Are they the surviving military forces? Does not matter. We will kill. That is good."

Both heroes took an offensive stance and as they did, Shunshi, trembling with fury, glared at this monster as it healed and shouted at it in a vicious war-cry that even startled Iaian, due to the timid and friendly behavior he had shown up until then "YOU BASTARD! Was blowing up a city not enough for you!? You gotta personally slaughter more people!? Well if you think I'll let you and that ship of yours hurt another living thing... THEN YOU MUST BE THE STUPIDEST FUCKING EXCUSE FOR A LIVING CREATURE IN THIS WHOLE GOD DAMN UNIVERSE!" As he roared this, Shunshi's normally small field of white flames grew to almost ten times it's usual size, surprising Iaian even further.

The black armored hero attempted to rush this monster and claw at it again, but, all of a sudden, the creature's arm took the form of a sword and swung at Shunshi's torso. He just barely saw the attack coming and jumped backwards at the last moment, resulting in the chest-piece of his armor getting cut open and leaving a large, semi-deep cut in his pectorals.

Stunned by the suddenly sped-up movements of this monster, Shunshi asked himself in a combination of annoyance and rage "When the Hell did this thing start moving so fast?!... Fuck!"

Not waiting any longer for the heroes to come to him, the strange monster instantly closed the distance between itself and Shunshi, got his bladed arm ready for another swing, and spoke emotionlessly to the stunned hero "We will kill you. That is good." Just as the monster was about to cut Shunshi in half, Iaian slashed at it two more times, hitting its legs, nearly taking them off in the process.

Despite still getting hit by the considerable wind-force of the monster's attack, Shunshi shook off the pain, took an offensive stance, focused his kie onto the tips of his claws and formed small light balls on each of them. Letting out all of his frustration, the dark-clad hero sprung forward and unleashed the longest flurry of precise jabs that he ever preformed. Each of his clawed strikes dug into the monster's flesh, while the light balls covering the claw tips caused small explosions with each attack.

As explosions poured out from his fingers, Shunshi passionately shouted the name of his improvised technique at the top of his lungs "EXPLOSIVE LIGHT FLURRY!"

After having witnessed this new hero dish out, over fifty exploding attacks in just a couple of seconds, Iaian was stunned when he saw that half of the torso of the monster they were fighting had been reduced to nothing. While looking at this awe- inspiring display of speed, technique, and power, Iaian saw, what looked like, several small, red marbles floating towards what remained of the monster.

Having been distracted by this peculiar sight, the knight-like hero didn't notice that the arm of the monster, which was now in the shape of a hammer, seemed to be acting on its own accord as it got ready to take a swing at him. Shunshi, despite having almost worn himself out with that assault, saw the monster preparing its attack, as well as the fact that Iaian seemed to be distracted, so he rushed over to Iaian, faster than even he himself knew he could run, and tackled him, which just served to confuse the highly-ranked hero, that is until the hammer arm finished its swing, causing a trail of intense wind-force to race past them, destroying anything in its path.

As he was beginning to breath heavily, Shunshi stood back up with Iaian while weakly telling him "... Be careful... You saw what it did to my chest earlier... All of its attacks are lethal..." Nodding to this, Iaian focused his attention back over to the monster, which had already began regenerating incredibly fast

"My apologies. I made the mistake of assuming it was already dead and almost lost my life to that attack. I was distracted by the sight of marbles floating over to the remains of the monster." Said Iaian.

Wincing in pain for whatever reason, Shunshi lifted his arm up to Iaian and asked him "Do you mean one of these." Glancing over at Shunshi's hand, Iaian saw one of the red marbles, that he noticed a second ago, held between Shunshi's claws. Turning to looked at him fully, Iaian asked Shunshi in genuine confusion "Where did you get one of those? Did you-"

Stopping himself mid-sentence, Iaian couldn't bring himself to keep talking at the gruesome sight before him. The wind-force strike from earlier had torn off Shunshi's cape, the back of his armor on his torso, and the majority of the flesh that used to make up his back was now gone, with just enough clumps of muscle holding his, now exposed to air, spine and shoulder plates in place.

Obliviously trying to ignore the undeniable amount of pain he must be in, Shunshi smiled underneath his helmet and slowly answered Iaian's question "When I was... going crazy a second ago... I found this inside of... that freak's... body."

Overcome with a feeling of guilt, Iaian asked Shunshi a series of questions while beginning to panic "What the Hell?! How are you still...? Did you get those injuries while protecting me!?" Forcing himself to let out a fake laugh, Shunshi responded dismissively "Don't worry about me... Just stay focused... My powers... heal me... I'll be fine... probably."

Looking a little bit more hopeful, Iaian asked Shunshi another question "Do you mean you can heal like Zombie Man?" As he slouched over in pain, Shunshi, speaking in as pleasant of a tone as he could, explained to Iaian "... No... It's not like I... could grow back a lost arm... or something... I just heal much faster... than a normal person..."

As he began to get an understanding on the limits of Shunshi's healing powers, Iaian looked even more guilt-ridden than earlier while he asked "Then... Are you going to d-", Cutting him off mid-sentence, Shunshi frantically shouted at Iaian "Behind you!"

In a blur of movement, the fully healed monster appeared behind Iaian and said "Such a weak and frail species. Easily killed. Let us finish this one. Then we kill the others that ran from us. That is good." In less than a split-second, the monster lifted its hammer arm into the air, causing Iaian to think to himself in despair as he shrank in fear "It's already healed?! Can't anything kill this thing?!"

Before the monster could kill him, what seemed like a blade of air cut the monster clean in half horizontally. Looking past the pile of flesh, Iaian saw Atomic Samurai with his sword drawn, which resulted in the young swordsman blurting out "Master!"

At first he smirked at his top student, but when he saw the horrible condition that the newbie A-Class hero from before was in, Atomic Samurai's eyes widened as he exclaimed "Holy shit, Iaian! Is he still alive? What happened to him? Hey, Bang! Your new student's in critical condition!"

In a tone of concern and fear, Iaian shouted at his S-Class master "Master, swords have no effect on this strange creature! Forget about me! You take Shunshi to a hospital and run while I distract it!"

Just as the young warrior said this, the body parts of the monster floated into the air, reformed its body, and tried to rush at Atomic Samurai in an all out attack, but, in what looked like only one swing of his kitana, the samurai reduced the monster into multiple pieces of flesh on the ground.

Looking back over at Iaian, Atomic snapped at him "Do you doubt your master's ability with the sword? Get it together! You can still fight, so set that guy down somewhere safe and if this thing is still standing when you're done, then come back to back me up!"

Visibly sweating while looking back and forth between his teacher and Shunshi, Iaian shouted back in response "Yes, Master!"

He then walked over to the now barely coherent Shunshi, turned to face away from him while getting on a knee and said urgently "Shunshi, get on my back, I'm going to get you to safety! My Master, Atomic Samurai, is here to deal with the monster!"

Hearing this, while wobbling on his feet, Shunshi weakly asked "... S-Class... are here?..." Iaian, wanting to get him to safety as fast as possible, shouted impatiently at him "YES! Now get-" All of a sudden, Shunshi lost consciousness and fell face-first onto Iaian's back, surprising him for a split second, before he quickly came to understand and started running as fast as he could to the Headquarter's disaster shelter.

After only running for a few seconds, Bang appeared from nowhere and approached Iaian and Shunshi. Having incredible respect for this elderly hero, Iaian came to a stop to hear if he had anything to tell him. Without saying a word, Bang looked at the near-death state that Shunshi was in and grew angry.

Lowering his head, Silver Fang spoke to the unconscious Shunshi in an apologetic tone "I know our sessions hadn't formally started yet, but, as your teacher, I should have kept a closer watch over you. I'm sorry... Iaian, please continue on your way to safety with Shunshi."

Just as Bang was about to walk away, Shunshi's arm came to life and presented the marble that he found to Silver Fang. Looking at this in a mixture of surprise and confusion, Bang recomposed himself and asked "What is this?"

Shunshi tried to say something, but he had clearly become too weak to speak, so Iaian explained "When we were fighting that monster over there, Shunshi said that he found that marble inside of the creature." Looking a little more confused then anything else, Bang took the marble and said "... If this belongs to the monster, then perhaps it could come in handy." Nodding his head to the two of them, Silver Fang gripped the marble in his hand and continued on his way as Iaian started running even faster than before.

As Bang walked closer to where Atomic Samurai was fighting, he pondered to himself out of concern "I dread thinking of how Saitama and Genos will feel about this... Especially Saitama."

By now, the monster had reformed once again, except this time, instead of having multiple heads, it only had one large head with five rows of eyes running down its face and five sets of teeth in its mouth that were pressed closely against one another, also of note was how it increased its already impressive height of nearly seventeen feet tall, to a staggering forty three feet.

Laughing gleefully as the last pieces of its body clinged back onto itself, the monster looked down and addressed Atomic Samurai "Good; seems a life form on this planet CAN fight. Excellent! I invite you to try withstanding our invasion."

Looking more pissed off than intimidated, Atomic Samurai glared up at this monster, as a vein visibly popped on his head, and angrily asked "'Planet' huh? So you guys are from outer space then. And you got friends in that floaty-toy of a ship above us. Yeah, that's gotta be it. I doubt you have the strength or the power to cause this much destruction to the city by yourself."

As Atomic Samurai took up a fighting stance, Silver Fang and a muscular teenager with a pompadour haircut, a tight fitting red shirt, and a metal baseball bat, walked up to his side, with Bang commenting aggressively "Considering the amount of lives that were lost here, and after seeing what that thing did to my future pupil, you can count Metal Bat and myself in on this fight, Atomic."

Having gotten a good look at the monster that had a hand in so much destruction, as well as being directly responsible for nearly killing Shunshi, Bang shifted the marble around in his hand, the marble that apparently belongs to this monster, glared at it, and, out of pure aggressive instinct, crushed it with the superhuman strength in his fingers.

All of a sudden, one of the sets of eyes that was on this monster's face, one set of its teeth, and two feet of it height turned to dust, causing it to fall to its knees in pain.

Atomic Samurai and the Metal Bat both flinched in surprise at this, with the younger one asking in annoyance "The Hell?! What happened to this bastard?! I haven't even cracked his skull open yet!"

Before anyone could give Metal Bat an answer to his question, the voice of Puri-Puri-Prisoner came out of nowhere and shouted angrily at the recovering monster "For all the beautiful men you killed, I claim vengeance!"

Looking behind itself, the monster saw the prisoner superhero run up from behind it, jump into the air in a majestic fashion, and enter what he calls 'Angel Mode' causing his muscles to enlarge to the point of ripping his own clothes off, but this time, there was something different about the mode; instead of the usual white wings that would appear off of his back when he would entered this state, in place of them there were a set of black wings.

Thinking back to his encounter with the Deep Sea King, Puri-Puri-Prisoner reminded himself "Like he said: Every attack must be delivered with the intent... TO KILL!" As he fell down towards the space monster, the Prisoner roared passionately "Dark Angel... RUSH!"

The naked man then unleashed his own flurry of bare-knuckle attacks on the monster, each blow having even more power behind them than Shunshi's exploding attacks from earlier, putting a new hole in the creature with each strike from his fists.

As the alien monster was putting itself back together, Silver Fang got everyone in the group's attention by shouting to them "LISTEN UP! My part-time student gave me a marble, that he found inside of this creature when he was fighting it alongside Iaian. In my anger, I crushed the marble, and that's what caused it to convulse in pain like it did. Because of how it seems to be regenerating, I'm guessing these marbles must be what its life force is connected to, not its actual body."

Hearing this, Atomic Samurai grinned and smugly asked "Is that so? Well, now that we know its weakness, this should be a cakewalk. I just gotta keep cutting till I find them." Metal Bat then chose to chime in as well in a surprisingly analytical tone of voice "So... based on the number of eyes left one that bastard's ugly mug, we've only got to find four more of em. No problem!"

Each of these fearsome S-Class heroes took up fighting stances, surrounding the beast from outer space as it healed once more, pounced on it as soon as it was fully reformed, each of them tearing into its massive body in search of the marbles that could put an end to it for good.

As all of this was happening, Genos, along with Tornado, a ten year old boy(The S-Class hero called Child Emperor), an incredibly large and muscular black man wearing nothing but a speedo(The S-Class hero called Super Alloy Darkshine), and an extremely intimidating blond haired man with three scars running down the left side of his face(The S-Class hero called King), were all standing on top of the Hero Association's Headquarters, each of them having apparently wound up there after climbing out of a hole in the building that was twice the size of an average man.

They seemed to be in the middle of an argument over how they should try to attack the alien space ship, when Genos lifted his arm up, as heat began to emanate out of his incinerators, and he made an offer to the Tornado "I do not know how effective I could be, but allow me to assist with your assault on the ship by attacking from the ground with my incinerator blasts." As apposed to the appropriate look of appreciation that you'd expect someone to give when given such an offer, Tornado gave Genos an annoyed look as she shouted at him "MAYBE YOU DIDN'T HEAR ME! I SAID I'LL HANDEL IT! Okay!?"

Looking utterly flabbergasted and annoyed, Genos straightened his posture and gave Tornado a very puzzled look. Before anything could come of this though, the man in the speedo approached Genos and warned him "Whoa. Take it easy there, Genos. I know how you feel, but if you piss her off she WILL kill you!"

The small woman then flew off with her physic powers, picking up gargantuan pieces of rubble from the ground as she went, hurling it up at the city-sized space ship.

Walking over to the edge of the roof, Genos calmly thought to himself "Very well. There is no need to team up with others anyway; Master has already successfully boarded the enemy ship. Whether this is the prophecy or not-" Genos cut himself off mid-thought when his gaze shifted to the ground over to where the four S-Class heroes were fighting the space monster. However, with how this fight seemed to be going so heavily in the heroes' favor, it was less of a fight and more of a brutalization.

Putting one of his mechanical hands to his chin, Genos continued to watch the 'fight' unfold and asked himself "Should I provide aid to hasten the extermination of that monster?... I suppose that would be unnecessary. I will instead turn on my scanners to search the surrounding area for any other invaders that may have descended from the space craft." Lighting up, a multitude of different scanners began going through Genos' yellow eyes as he looked all over the ruined landscape that used to be a massive city. After surveying around for a bit, Genos noticed a person running to the other side of the HQ, while carrying another person on their back. Enhancing his telescopic vision, Genos managed to get better look at these two, making them out to be the A-Class heroes Iaian and Shunshi, the latter of whom was visibly in critical condition.

Seeing how brutally injured his junior was, Genos' eyebrows raised in slight surprise. Deciding that this warranted further investigation, Genos jumped off of the roof, prompting some confused looks from the other S-Class heroes around him. He quickly hit the ground, hard enough to knock some medium sized debris from the ground into the air due to the distance he'd fallen as well as his dense metal body.

Rushing at full speed over to Iaian, Genos, slowing down once he'd caught up in order to run at the same pace as the young swordsman, asked him in a calm, near emotionless, tone of voice "I am the newest S-Class hero, Genos. The man you are carrying studies with the same Master that I do, where he is my junior. What happened to him?"

Initially surprised by this intimidating cyborg's sudden appearance, Iaian took a moment to recover from the shock. Eventually, he answered Genos' question in a shame-filled tone of voice "Hello... Well, Shunshi got these injuries when we were fighting the monster on the other side of the building. He... Well, he pushed me out of the way of an attack that could've killed me if he hadn't. I'm sorry that I wasn't more vigilant, but I assure you that I'll-" Before he could say anything else, Genos ran off in the opposite direction, pushing the limits of how fast his robot body would let him run, causing him to build up smoldering heat inside of his mechanical frame as he ran.

Back at the fight between the heroes and the regenerating alien. The four of them were in a box formation around the monster when it tried to hit Atomic Samurai by stretching its arm out at him at a lethal speed, but, just as the samurai was about to counterattack, Bang slid in between his friend and the alien's attack, deflecting the blow with a redirecting block, causing the monster's arm to pierce a good dozen feet or so into the ground next to Atomic Samurai. Before the space alien had a chance to pull its arm free, Metal Bat rushed behind it and took a swing at the back of its left leg, severing the limb from the knee down, causing the monster to fall onto its back. As it grew its leg back, got on its knee and tried to stand back up, Atomic Samurai swiftly cut it into so many pieces that they were small enough to start mixing with the dirt and debris on the ground.

Just as the heroes began to look for the marbles that kept this creature alive, the pieces of the monster's flesh floated into the air and began to spin around each other as if they'd suddenly got stuck inside of an invisible cyclone. As the pieces span around each other they began to cling to one another in order to heal. Just as the pieces started to vaguely resemble the alien's body, Atomic Samurai hit the largest clump of flesh with a inhumanly precise, lightning fast cut from his sword, causing a fourth of the flesh bits to turn to dust as one of the marbles, having been split in half, fell from the dust.

Quickly pulling together the remaining pieces of itself, the space monster reformed all that it could of its body, except for one clump that formed into a head with wings.

Turning its two surviving sets of eyes to look at its separated, flying head, the monster gave it an order "Hurry. Go up to the ship and order a bombardment." Grinning like a psychopath, the head responded "That is good!"

The head quickly took off into the air and tried to make its way to the spaceship, but, before it could get very far, Metal Bat jumped into the air in front of it, smashed it with his bat and shouted furiously "Where the fuck do ya think yer goin!?" The young hero hit the head with his baseball bat so hard that it crushed and tore apart its flesh, knocking it back towards the ground, specifically, in the direction of Puri Puri Prisoner. As the clump of flesh that used to be a head reached him, Prisoner swiftly punched into it, grabbing a marble as he did. Not noticing that its marble had been taken, the head attempted to reform, but before it could, Puri Puri popped the marble that he grabbed into his mouth and crushed it with the teeth sitting inside of his powerful jaws, before spitting out the shards, reducing the head to dust in the process.

Furious at the loss of yet another one of its heads, the alien monster bellowed out in fury while forming tentacles on its body and wildly flailing them at the heroes in an attempt to kill them, but each of the fighters easily smashed, cut, grabbed and deflected any of the limbs that got near them.

Smirking with confidence as he expertly cut apart another tentacle that got near him, Atomic Samurai thought to himself with utter confidence "At this rate, this freak will be nothing but a bad memory in no time at all." As he attempted to move closer to the monster, in order to get another shot at one its marbles, Atomic stopped when he noticed a massive cloud of dust and debris moving closer and closer towards them at an incredible speed.

All four of the heroes, as well as the monster, had taken notice of this dust cloud moving towards them. The heroes assumed it was some sort of invisible weapon from the spaceship, while the alien assumed it was a fast moving vehicle that was just out of view and coming to either rescue or provide reinforcements for the soldiers that it was fighting.

As the source of the dust cloud came into view, everyone in the fight could see that it was the newest S-Class hero, Genos, who was causing the upheaval of debris with his superhuman running speed. When Genos got close enough for them all to see him in more detail they were all more than a little taken off guard by his current appearance.

Genos had a furious lust for blood in his eyes centered in on the monster they were fighting; due to having pushed his body to run so fast for so long, all of his visible mechanical body parts had become red-hot with so much steam rising off of him that he could be mistaken for a small volcano, lastly, because of the scorching temperature of his body, all of his clothing had begun to catch fire; all of this caused everyone who was looking at the young cyborg to mistake him for a demon initially.

When he got close enough, Genos slammed his arms together in front of himself and unfolded all of the guns in his arms that he used against Saitama during their 'sparring match' in the canyon. Each of them letting their survival instincts take over, Silver Fang, Atomic Samurai, Metal Bat, and Puri-Puri Prisoner all jumped out of the way to get away from the cyborg's target, the alien.

In an instant, the red-hot color of the exposed metal of Genos' body seemed to drain out through his arms and into his guns. As flames started to erupt from his cannon, Genos gritted his teeth and viciously growled through them "Incinerate!"

Meanwhile. Iaian had, at last, made it to the opposite side of the Hero Association's headquarters with the dying Shunshi on his back. He saw a large opened door, guarded by armored trucks, letting survivors into the building. As he got close to the door, he flinched and almost fell over at the sound of a large explosion going off. He didn't let this get to him though, as his attention was more focused on seeking medical attention for the man who potentially saved his life.

As Iaian went through the door, he rushed past a small set of survivors being led in by the some of the staff members of the headquarters. The majority of the civilians who were hiding out there instantly recognized the number 2 A-Class hero when he walked in, but significantly less of these people, even those who may have been his fan, recognized the bloody mess known as Shunshi that was being carried on his back.

The disaster survivors crowded around Iaian and began to frantically pester him for answers about the alien invasion, but, being far more concerned with getting Shunshi help, Iaian furiously shouted at the civilians "Get out of my way, now!" All of the people who gathered around Iaian recoiled in shock and went back to cowering in the corners of the rescue room as soon as he yelled at them.

After finding the rescue room's medical-center, the knight-themed hero rushed up to the doctors, who were scrambling to care for all of the injured and potentially dying civilians that the spaceship brought about with its initial attack, handed Shunshi over to them and, as they laid him face-down on a medical-cot, Iaian frantically explained to the doctors, who were horrified by the gravity of his injuries, what had happened to him "He was injured while we were fighting off the ground forces of the alien invasion. He told me that he heals quicker than a normal person, but I'm unsure if that ability will be able to save him without proper medical attention."

Growing a grim expression on her face, the doctor took a quick look over Shunshi's back, some sections of it were visibly healing already, while over sections of were making no visible progress and just continued to bleed at an absurd rate. Not sure if her new patient was actually still alive, she examined his wrist and found a frantic pulse. Taking the young hero's arm and connecting him to a mobile heart-rate monitor, the look of despair on the doctor's face visibly grew as she saw that his resting heart-rate had skyrocketed up to two hundred bpm.

Looking back at Iaian, the doctor explained the situation to him in a very morbid tone "In all honesty, this man should be dead. If what you say about his powers are true, then it would seem like it's the only thing that's kept him alive so far. And it's not just the injuries themselves that are putting his life at risk; his heart is beating so frantically that he should be suffering from a new heart attack every second. I'll see what we can do, but our resources are being spread very thin right now, so I'd truthfully say that his chances are even less than just a little slim." Unsure of how to respond to this, Iaian simply stood there and stared at the ground for a moment; until he remembered Atomic Samurai's order to return, so he drew his sword, examined the blade for a moment, and then started to walk back outside when he was stopped by a crying little girl grabbing his arm.

The child, not even waiting for Iaian to ask what she wants, blubbered out "Mmm... my... My mommy and daddy... Where are they? Did you find them anywhere?! Can you go find them?!...(sob) I'm scared; I don't wanna be alone..."

Initially taken off guard by this child's plight, Iaian sheathed his sword, knelt down, and placed his hand on her shoulder while telling her "... I promise that I'll do my best to find your parents." Just wanting to have heard that her parents were okay, the little girl began to cry even more violently, leaving Iaian more than just a little depressed.

Unsure of how long he had been unconscious, Shunshi started to open his eyes as he heard the sound of a child crying. Only able to get his eyelids to open partially, Shunshi weakly shifted his eyes to look at Iaian trying to comfort a young girl, who the crying was coming from. As he slipped back and forth between consciousness, Shunshi could hear her asking about where her parents were.

Hearing this child's crying made him think about Conner, then the boy's sister, and finally, all of the other countless people who must have perished to the alien invasion. Furious at his inability to do anything about this or any other major disaster he had encountered since meeting his Sensei, all logic left Shunshi's brain as he began to internally scream.

Suddenly, much to the horror of Iaian and the doctor presiding over him, Shunshi's heart-rate quickly rose even higher to 250 bpm. Before anyone could take any measures try and regulate his heart-rate, white flames erupted from Shunshi's body even more fiercely than when he was attacking the space-monster; this pushed back everyone that was standing too close to him, singeing some of their clothes in the process. Without warning, Shunshi began to scream, in what sounded like, a mixture of fury and agonizing pain, as all of the flesh that was on his back started restoring itself, all while burning and melting away anything that was within range of his flames; including the cot he was on, the heart-rate monitor, and even what was left of his own armor. As the flames continued to shoot off of him, his shoulder-length hair was wildly getting flung about in various directions and looked as if it were beginning to turn white.

Back at the massacre of the of the regenerating alien; Genos, who actually looked like he slightly melted himself from the intense heat he released from his earlier attack, was propelling himself through the air, past the other heroes, and towards the monster while wearing an expression of shear malice on his artificial face. As soon as he got close enough to it, Genos shouted, "MACHINE GUN BLOW!", Unleashing his signature melee attack, except he was keeping his hands open as opposed to closed knuckles this time. As he tore into the flesh of the alien, his reasoning for keeping his hands open became obvious when one of his hands came back out of the spaceman's flesh with a marble in their clutch.

Holding the small jewel above his head, Genos impatiently asked the other heroes "Tell me; is this one of the marbles that you told me about!?"

Always quick to please handsome men, Puri-Puri Prisoner answered him "That's it, sweet Genos!" Withing the instant that he got conformation, Genos crushed the marble in his hand until it was turned into sand, causing another large portion of the evil creature to turn into dust; but as soon as he did, the right arm of the giant alien suddenly stretched out at Genos and tore off the hand he'd used to crush the marble, in less than a second. As Genos used his jets to send himself flying backwards out of self preservation, Bang and Metal Bat rushed forward to act as reinforcements for him, but as soon as they passed Genos, the monster's other arm shot forward, hit Bang in his chest and sent him flying back with such force that he went through several ruined pillars, before he became embedded in the remains of a building that was sitting a quarter of a mile behind him.

In order to force away Metal Bat, the alien swung at him with the arm he used to wound Genos, but the teenage hero countered the attack with a swing from his namesake. When the arm and the baseball bat collided, the collision caused an explosion of air pressure that tore up the space creature's arm and knocked Metal Bat to the ground, but with considerably less force than Silver Fang had been hit with.

All of the heroes that were still standing quickly regrouped, as the alien grew back to its full size, increased the muscle mass of its arms, and proclaimed in a tone of both arrogance and hatred "I suppose my mistake was to try and divide my attention on both defence and offense. If I just focus on everything on offense, then I can make quick work of-" Still furious with this monster, Genos cut him off with a fire blast to its head, reducing it to dust; however, it grew back just as quickly as it was destroyed, serving only to piss it off.

Meanwhile, back in the rescue shelter. At this point, Shunshi's flames had burned up so much of his surroundings that he was on his knees, still screaming, in the center of a scorched pit.

After a few more moments of shouting, the young hero stopped producing flames from his body and he looked as if he'd finally calmed down, but his body seemed to have changed in couple visible ways: His hair went back from white to black; the gaping wound on his back was fully healed, but it was replaced by one large burn mark that was shaped like an outline of his injuries; secondly, the rather impressive fit and muscular physique that Shunshi had worked to gain over the past three years of his life was gone, and in its place, he now had a thin and sickly body, to the point that his eyes were very sunken in, and he could barely stand up without having to slouch over, even then, he was still violently shaking due to the amount of effort that he had to put into the act of standing.

After taking a second to make sure that his new acquaintance was done exploding, Iaian edged up to Shunshi and, while trying to avoid looking down, awkwardly asked him "Uh, are you alright?... Done making fire? I hope so, all this fire possibly put the rescue shelter at ri-" Iaian stopped speaking when Shunshi lifted his head up to look at him. The sunken in appearance of Shunshi's eyes combined with his new, burned, and almost skeletal appearance, caused the swordsman to trip over his words due to both being disturbed and fearful that younger hero might blame him for his injuries.

Smiling softly, Shunshi weakly spoke to Iaian in a raspy voice "I'm okay... I don't know why I made so much fire just now, sorry... Did I hurt you or anybody?" More than just a little taken off guard by the contrast of one's appearance and their words that Shunshi just displayed, Iaian cocked an eyebrow and simply answered "... No, you didn't hurt anyone."

Pleased to hear this, Shunshi began to shamble towards the door that lead back out to the destroyed city. Panicked by this, Iaian grabbed the weakened Shunshi by his shoulder and yelled at him "Where do you think you're going in that condition?!"

Almost wincing in pain from Iaian's grip, the sickly hero rasped out "Once I really get going, I'll get my second wind in me. There are probably still people out there who need help," Grinning coyly, he continued "And I wanna see the S-Class heroes in action!"

Iaian gave Shunshi a disapproving and dumbfounded look while trying to explain to him "But... You want to go help people? Well, you aren't gonna be any good to anyone in the condition that you're in!" Shrugging at this with little to no concern, he replied "I can still walk and give people directions... And I'm not missing an opportunity to watch Master Silver Fang in action."

Growing more and more frustrated with the newbie hero's persistence, Iaian rubbed his brow, let out a sigh, and exclaimed "Fine! But you have to stay by me the whole time! Also... We need to get some clothes on you before we go." Confused by this, Shunshi looked at his body and realized for the first time that he was, in fact, buck-naked in the middle of a public room, this caused his face to turn as red as his back.

A few moments later, a hesitant Iaian and Shunshi, who was now wearing a closed up hospital gown, were walking back to where they remembered fighting the alien monster, however, they were slowed down considerably by Shunshi's condition.

While walking, Iaian was growing annoyed by their slow pace and told Shunshi in a passive aggressive tone of voice "You know, we'd go a lot faster if you'd just let me carry you..." Thinking back to the night that Genos carried him home, the young hero responded in a semi-polite tone "I'm good, thanks." Switching to a whisper, he continued to himself "Never again."

They both continued on their way, Iaian simply grumbled to himself in frustration on the way, while Shunshi continued to hobble along, neither of them speaking another word to the other. Occasionally though, the two would see massive chunks of ruble covered in green energy being flung through the air, aimed towards the spacecraft. Without having to say a word to each other, both heroes understood what was causing this, as they simultaneously thought to themselves "That must be the Tornado of Terror."

Dozens of yards away, at the fight against the alien. The creature transformed its right arm into a sword and leapt at Atomic Samurai in order to try and impale him on his limb, but the expert swordsman cut the arm-blade into pieces before it could hit him, however, the arm just grew back right away and attempted the same attack, except at an even faster speed, so Atomic had to once again cut it apart. They continued this cycle for a few seconds, until the monster pulled his arm back, grew almost a dozen spear-like protrusions and tried to smash the Samurai once more. At first, it seemed like this was going to potentially overwhelm the hero, but the attack was stopped when one of Genos' fire blasts hit the invader's side, burning off a large chunk of its torso and stunning it for a moment, giving Atomic Samurai the time he needed to jump back and get some room.

After its left arm regrew, the monster thought to itself "I can't believe it! In just a little under an hour these worms destroyed the marbles that took me thousands of years to grow! I haven't even gotten a chance to call for a bombardment strike in the middle of all this chaos! Not to mention, that fire spewing one is making this more difficult than it needs to be! If he weren't here then victory would be mine by now!"

As soon as the otherworldly monster was done thinking, everyone in the fight heard the sound of an old man's voice exclaim "Ah! Oh, that's better. The stiffness in my shoulders are gone." The alien and a couple of the heroes turned to look in the direction of the voice and saw Silver Fang making circular motions with his arm and rubbing the shoulder of that arm; he was now shirtless, showing off the elder's incredible physique, as well as the numerous scars lining his arms and shoulders.

Finishing his self massage, the old martial arts master looked up at the monster and calmly said "Guess I must be a little rusty." Unable to believe that anyone aside from his master could survive one of his strikes, the alien menace exclaimed in utter shock "NO! How can you still be alive!?"

The creature couldn't ponder this for long, as it got hit in the back of its head by another fire blast, which was soon followed up by Atomic Samurai declaring to the creature, with blood lust in his voice "You should remember to keep your eyes on the people you're fighting... ATOMIC SLASH!" In an instant, countless sword swings seemed to come out of nowhere, reducing the alien's body into finely cut cubes.

Before the cubes of meat could even hit the ground though, they floated into the air, turned to dust and began moving through the air like a wild and violent storm. Through all of it, the monster's voice could be heard shouting furiously "INSOLENCE! SUCH COMPLETE INSOLENCE!"

Bang started moving towards the center of this dust storm, but before he got very far, Genos rocketed past the old man and beat him to what he was going for, the last marble.

Gripping this jewel of life force tightly in his one remaining hand, Genos, glaring at it furiously as the alien tried to form around it, explained to it with a calm fury "You should not have harmed my fellow student, especially with an injury that he may not survive." Ignoring this, the monster's voice roared out "NNNOOOOOOO!" Before the cyborg crushed its last tether to land of the living.

Calmly walking up to the young man, Bang, in an almost parental tone of concern, quietly asked Genos "Looks like we had the same idea... So, I'm guessing by your outburst against this monster, you saw what it did to your friend Shunshi?"

Letting the dust that was left over from the marble fall to the ground, the yellow eyed Cyborg responded to this question with a correcting tone "It would be a gross overstatement to call us friends. We are simply fellow students of the same Sensei. As his Senpai, it is my duty to make sure that no major harm befalls him."

Looking at Genos with hidden disapproval, Bang analytically thought to himself "One only acts with anger such as what you displayed when they lose a family member or close friend... I suppose I'd be overstepping my boundaries with him if I tried to council him about this. I'll leave it to the young man to figure out his own emotions."

Just as he finished thinking, a raspy, but still strangely chipper voice called out "Awww maaaan! Did we miss the whole thing? I wanted to watch you in action, Silver Fang-Sensei!" Genos, Atomic Samurai, Metal Bat, Puri-Puri Prisoner and Bang looked in the direction that the voice was coming from and saw Iaian slowly walking towards them, with an anemic looking man in a hospital gown at his side.

Seeing that the fight was in fact over, Iaian let out a relieved sigh and snapped at Shunshi "Well it's a good thing that it's already done! You know we would've just gotten in the way, Shunshi!"

Hearing Shunshi's name being used to address this hospital patient, Genos instantly rocketed over to Iaian and Shunshi, stopping only a foot from them while wearing an extremely concerned expression on his face. Addressing Iaian first, Genos frantically asked him "Did you say that this man standing next to you is Shunshi?!" Iaian, once again freaked out by Genos, leaned back and answered hesitantly "Uh, y- yes?"

Looking a bit more angry now, Genos snapped at Iaian "What is the matter with you!? Why would you bring him here if he is in this bad of a condition?! I should rip your arm off for such stupidity!" Gaining a bit more courage now, Iaian defended himself by defiantly explaining "HEY, cool it! I didn't do it by choice! He refused to sit still, so I figured it'd be better for him to have me accompany him, as opposed to him heading out here on his own."

Turning his attention to Shunshi, Genos began to scan his wounds while also yelling at him "You complete fool! You seem ready to die from a strong gust of wind in this state, yet you came out here anyway?!" Frowning a bit, Shunshi took a moment to reply, as he was surprised by the sight of Genos' own injuries, but he eventually replied with a simple smirk "Sorry, Genos-Senpai. But I didn't have anything better to do after I finished heal- OUCH!" Genos interrupted his junior when, he grabbed a clump of his long hair, in order to gain control of the direction his head faced, so that his scanners could get better readings on his bony face.

While twisting Shunshi's head to the right in order to examine one of his sunken in eye sockets, Genos noticed the burn marks that were at the top of his spine and let go of his head as a result.

Rubbing his strained scalp and neck, Shunshi complained to Genos "Ouch. Come on, Senpai; you don't just do that to someone recovering from severe injurie-" Cutting him off once more, Genos gave Shunshi a bizarre order "Turn around and let me see your back. From what I can tell, I need to properly scan the injuries that are there as well."

Understandably baffled by this at first, Shunshi cocked an eyebrow and asked "Come again?", while Iaian thought to himself with annoyance and bewilderment "Geez. Dealing with these two is so weird that I might take Genos up on his offer of mutilation, if it meant I got to slip away from them."

Intensifying his glare a bit, Genos stated to Shunshi "I severely overheated earlier and now my scanners are not working properly, they cannot scan through your clothing in their current state. Now do as I asked." Rolling his eyes and sighing, Shunshi turned around and to face away from Genos while asking Iaian in an exhausted tone "Iaian, could you cut this thing so that Genos can see where I got hurt?"

If the swordsman had been drinking water at this moment he would have spat it out as he hysterically asked Shunshi "You can't be seriously doing what he's asking, can you?! And Why do you want me to cut it anyway!? Just slide it down over your shoulders and let it rest on your waist."

Looking down at the ground, Shunshi explained in an embarrassed tone "Look, when Genos gets like this, with the exception of Sensei, you either do what he asks or he eventually makes you do what he wants. And with how I tied up this thing, I can't just take it off that way. All I can do with it on my own is take it all off and, then, tie it around my waist. In case you forgot, I already went commando earlier, and I'd rather I didn't have to do that again, so can you just do this favor for me?"

While watching this whole debacle unfold, Bang muttered to himself in shock "This is... more than a little odd. Is that really Shunshi?"

Nudging the old man in his side, Atomic Samurai somewhat jokingly asked "Is that twig all that's left of your new student? You'd need roughly ten armies of guys like that to even equal up to one of my students."

Resting his bat on his shoulder, Metal Bat decided to chime in on this in a bored tone "Well, this is getting weird. I'm gonna see If I can get Tornado to throw me up to that spaceship or something, so I can crack some more alien skulls." The teenage hero then walked off.

Not wanting see this either, Puri-Puri Prisoner pointed in the opposite direction and explained "Gross. I like my boys on the thinner side and all, but that's a little too much for me. I'm going to go see if I can find some other heroes to coordinate with." The convict hero then made his leave as well.

Hesitantly, Iaian slowly used his sword to carefully cut down Shunshi's hospital gown, with Shunshi commenting "All you gotta do is make it so he can see my injuries. Don't go any farther than that." Iaian simply grumbled back at him "You don't have to tell me twice... Is this guy your older brother or some other relative?"

Initially confused by this question, the skeleton man eventually gave an answer to the swordsman "Uh, no; we're just close friends... And I've actually got a year on the guy." While he continued to carefully cut the fabric covering Shunshi's back, Iaian thought to himself in a displeased tone "They're not family, yet Shunshi is okay with taking his clothes off around Genos? What a couple of freaks."

Once the massive burn was exposed, the x-rays of Genos' scanners, without a layer of fabric getting in their way, got to work examining the red flesh that formed where Shunshi's back had been ripped off. While doing this, he also asked his junior a question that had been bugging him "So, Shunshi. I saw your injuries while you were unconscious and I believed that your death was certain. Explain to me exactly how you healed."

Having to think about this for a second, Shunshi gathered his thoughts, looked into the sky, and answered Genos truthfully "Well, I was laying down somewhere... The Hero Association's rescue center, I think... Anyway, everything around me was completely black from my point of view; I actually did think I was dead for a bit there. I woke up a bit when I heard a kid crying, then I started thinking about all of the people who were murdered today... and how I wasn't able to do anything to save anyone, before or after the city'd been destroyed. I got overwhelmed with how desperately I wanted to stay alive to save these people and kill the aliens that hurt them, when, all of a sudden, every inch of my body started spewing out more fire than it ever had before. But what was really weird about this fire was that... uh, well it actually felt like it was burning me everywhere that I'd been hurt today... I guess that's why I got this big mark on my back and why I'm so thin."

After sending his limited medical report to Doctor Stench, and blinking his eyes to turn off his scanner, Genos looked as if he was contemplating something as he told Shunshi "Interesting... All right, I am done. Once Sensei reunites with us, I will need to bring you to Dr. Stench's laboratory for further examinations."

Groaning in frustration, Shunshi grumbled back at Genos "Whatever. I want to get some pants first though... By the way, where IS Sensei?"

Iaian, deeply confused by this conversation, looked at Silver Fang standing a little less than several dozen feet away and thought "Did he go blind too? His sensei is right there."

Pointing upwards, Genos told Shunshi in a casual tone "He is currently up on the spaceship." Nodding his head, the walking skeleton replied "Oh, that makes sense."

Hearing what sounded the mad gibbering of insane asylum patients to him, Iaian thought to himself in an annoyed and defeated tone "Okay, so they're not blind, just crazy... I'm gonna go speak with Master Atomic."

A little less than a half hour had passed, the students of Saitama had moved away from the combat zone and were sitting next to the Hero Association HQ. Due to their beaten and tired bodies preventing them from taking further action in stopping the invasion, they passed their time waiting for Saitama by sitting on what was left of building's steps and watching the S-Class heroes that were still present and fighting.

By this point, for an unknown reason, some of Shunshi's muscles had slowly grown back, not so much that his skeletal appearance was completely gone, but at least enough for him to be able to walk on his own without the risk of collapsing in on himself. As Genos was baffled by his junior's body slowly growing back, Shunshi was watching Metal Bat trying to chase down Tornado of Terror, while she was flying around, hurling masses of debris at the space ship with her psychic powers and, either ignoring Metal Bat, or genuinely not noticing him at all.

As he watched this almost amusing display between two S-Class heroes unfold, Shunshi smirked and somewhat jokingly said to Genos "Man, would you look at all the S-Class heroes? I wish I had an autograph book or something. Ha heh heh..." Even from simply glancing at his allies' facial expressions as he spoke, Genos could see Shunshi trying to hide some sort of sadness behind his smile, but chose to say nothing.

After a few more minutes of sitting in awkward silence, the two students quickly rose to their feet in surprise when they heard, what sounded like, a series of explosions coming from the spaceship. Looking up at the ship, Genos and Shunshi saw a bombardment of building-sized cannon shells hurtling towards all of the heroes that were still attacking the vessel. All but one of the heroes that saw this were stunned with panic, while Tornado of Terror, being the only one left unphased, focused her telekinesis and, all at once, grabbed every one of the shells with her psychic powers and threw them back at the ship, destroying all of it's guns in the process.

Astounded by this display of power, Genos turned to Shunshi and exclaimed "What a display of raw power! It is nothing compared to Master's abilities, but it is still rather impressive." Smirking at the rouse that Tornado of Terror got out of Genos, Shunshi rested his head on his hand and casually replied "Yeah, that's about what I'd expect from a S-Class hero. For someone who's as highly ranked as Ms. Tornado, this was nothin'."

Hearing his ally's high expectations for what he assumed S-Class heroes were capable of, Genos started to feel a mixture of confusion as to why he would assume something so ridiculous, and a sense of self-loathing for not being able to live up to his junior's expectations. Not sure of what he should say to this, Genos went back to sitting in silence, having no clue how he should communicate his feelings.

Another half an hour or so passed, when, after the ship had been tilted onto its side, supposedly by Tornado, the space fairing vessel started crashing to the ground. Due to already being so close to the Hero Association's building, Genos and Shunshi quickly, but calmly, made their way inside with plenty of time to spare before the crash-down, with the other heroes arriving just a minute after them. Quick to grab the large metal doors leading into the rescue shelter, Puri-Puri-Prisoner and Super Alloy Darkshine closed them just in time to avoid a title wave of debris that would have hit everyone otherwise.

In no time at all, the debris that blocked the exit to the rescue shelter got cleared out by the heroes, so that they could head back out and search the crash-site.

When the S-Class heroes split up for the recognizance, Shunshi, having put on some new clothes and also having grown back the faintest amount of his muscle-tone, convinced Genos to let him go search the wreckage around the ship as well.

While slowly making his way around the remains of the alien spaceship, Shunshi stumbled upon Super Alloy Darkshine, with a strong looking chain wrapped around his shoulder for some reason, and digging through impossibly huge slabs of space metal with his bare hands.

Noticing the, almost, skeletal person walking towards him, Alloy put up his fists and shouted at him "Hold it! Who are you and what do you think you're doing?!"

At this point, the young hero had become too tired to be intimidated, or to let his admiration for the hero influence his response, so he calmly explained to Darkshine "I'm an A-Class hero. I'm just trying to help with the search."

Putting his fists down, the S-Class hero asked Shunshi in a surprised tone "Oh, really? I don't really pay attention to any heroes below S-Class. You gotta be careful, walking around, looking so creepy."

Nodding his head in agreement, he replied in a strangely calm voice "Yeah, I get what you-... Hey, what's that noise?" Not sure of what the skeleton guy was talking about, Super alloy listened to his surroundings for a moment, until he heard some muffled cries from beneath the rubble. Quickly digging apart the ground, Super Alloy Darkshine found almost a dozen of the invading aliens huddled and pressed together, their attempt to hide having been foiled.

Scowling at the aliens, Alloy took the chain off of his shoulder and snapped at them "Alright! If you freaks can understand what I'm sayin', then get over here and sit your asses down with your backs to each other!" Sweating with fear at the goliath who found them, the aliens, without speaking a word, walked over to him and did as he ordered them to do.

Using the chain, Darkshine quickly tied all the other worlders together and asked Shunshi "You said you're a hero, right? Look, I know that you don't have any real muscle on you, but do you mind keepin' an eye on them? I'm gonna go get the other heroes so we can all interrogate these guys together." Letting himself plop down on a boulder that had been sitting behind him, Shunshi gave the hero a thumbs up, combined with a reassuring smirk. Nodding at this, Super Alloy Darkshine made his way past Shunshi and towards where he believed the other heroes would most likely be.

Just as the the more intimidating hero walked out of earshot, the aliens began to whisper and panic to each other, sharing their concerns about how some guy named 'Boros' was defeated and as to whether or not they'd be allowed to live.

Feeling a bit of pity for these aliens, Shunshi yelled over to them with nothing but honesty in his voice "Hey. You guys don't need to worry about us killing you. We're heroes; we're known for being really nice, and you guys already got your butts kicked something fierce; you're pretty much harmless to us at this point. So, don't worry; all we just need to ask you all some questions."

Overcome with confusion, as well as some small amount of relief, the band of surviving aliens gave Shunshi funny looks, until one of them weekly responded "Um... Thanks for that, guy... I guess..."

After only a few more minutes had passed, another one of the aliens shouted to Shunshi "Hey; hero guy! Look, someone's coming!" Turning his head to look behind himself, Shunshi was excited to see the person who was walking towards them; the top ranked A-Class hero, Sweet Mask.

Jumping to his feet, Shunshi quickly started to make his way towards the idol hero, excitedly telling him "Hey there, Sweet Mask, sir. You probably don't recognize me right now, but it's me- Aagh!" Having no interest in what this supposed hero that Darkshine said was watching the aliens had to say, Sweet Mask harshly pushed his fragile looking body out of his way and to the ground.

Once he got close enough to the aliens, Sweet Mask struck at each of them with a karate chop moving at a superhuman speed, reducing them all to green blood and clumps of flesh. Shocked by his sudden actions, Darkshine stammered at the number one A-Class hero, "Sweet Mask! Why did you do that?!", while Genos rushed over to check on Shunshi, finding that, due to his junior's frail body, he'd cracked his forearm and a few of his ribs because of his fall.

Whipping away some of the blood that had splashed onto his face, Sweet Mask answered Super Alloy Darkshine's question with cold blood lust in his voice "They did not deserve to live, they were evil. I was simply administering justice as quickly as possible."

Barely holding back his desire to attack him, Genos asked Sweet Mask his own question "What purpose did lashing out at my ally serve to you?" Snapping his head in Genos' direction, a vein formed on Sweet Mask's face as he gave his answer "He failed to contribute in stopping this invasion in any meaningful way. The fact that such a failure tried to approach me as if he were my ally is an insult to justice itself. You should understand that, Genos... Although, after your failure against the Deep Sea King, and your failure today, I'm beginning to question your actual ability to uphold Justice."

Having quickly reached the end of his fuse with this man, Genos, despite his damaged state, visibly began to consider attacking the A-Class idol, but, before he could put much thought into it, Shunshi grabbed Genos's wrist with his good arm. Looking down at his junior, Genos was convinced not to attack when he saw Shunshi shake his head as a warning to him that he should probably stand down. Letting out a sigh of frustration, Genos helped Shunshi to his feet, letting him rest his good arm on his metal shoulder.

Deciding that they no longer had time to wait for their Master any longer, Genos began walk away to take his ally to see Dr. Stench, but, when they turned to face away from the other heroes, the cyborg was stopped cold by the surprising sight of tears suddenly and silently streaming down Shunshi's face.

Bang quickly approached the two and saw Shunshi trying to hide his crying from everyone, and decided to ask them a question "Are... you two alright?" Only half listening to the old man, Genos replied, "I'll be repaired soon." However, despite the question being framed for both of them, Bang was only looking at Shunshi.

Using his fractured arm to rub away the tears on his face, but flinching when he accidentally pushed on his injury, seemingly resulting in more tears going down his face; Shunshi let out a good natured chuckle and answered his second teacher's question with a positive sounding tone of voice "I guess I wound up hurting myself more than I thought. I just started crying out of nowhere. Weird, right?"

Saying nothing out loud, Bang stroked his mustache and thought to himself grimly "Based on what I've gathered from about his personality, Shunshi seems to idolize heroes to some extent. He may not be willing to admit it when one of his idols does something that lets him down, regardless of how much sorrow it may cause him. I should-"

All of a sudden, a very loud series of rumbling could be heard coming from the ship, which ended with Saitama casually punching a hole out of the space craft and, with his clothing in tatters and with a minimally pleased sounding voice, he said "Oh, I finally got out. Cool."

Recognizing this silly looking bald man from the S-Class meeting, Tornado flew over to him and asked "Hey! How did a B-Class like you get in that ship? Shouldn't you be dead or something?"

Rushing over to his Master as fast as he could while taking care not to harm Shunshi, Genos shouted to Saitama "Master! There you are! Shunshi needs your assistance!" Seeing his cyborg student, Saitama was surprised by Genos' beaten up condition and was confused by the skeleton man that was resting against him.

Folding his arms, Saitama blurted out "Geez, Genos; why do you look all melty? Well, whatever. If Shunshi needs help, then show me where he is... And who's that bony guy you're carrying?!"

Gesturing for Saitama to start carrying Shunshi, Genos bluntly answered his teacher "This IS Shunshi, Master. I would like you to aid me in escorting him to Dr. Stench's lab for medical care. I will explain all of the details of how he ended up like this on the way there."

Stunned by the news that this walking corpse was Shunshi, Saitama reeled back and exclaimed in disbelief "THAT'S SHUNSHI?! Okay, give em' here. Let's get going! Show the way." Taking Shunshi in his arms bridal-style, Saitama started to follow Genos as he ran as fast as his damaged body would allow him to. As all this went on, Shunshi grunted in pain from his fractured bones getting jostled around while also trying to ignore the humiliation he was feeling at having to be carried once again.

While they were running, Shunshi overheard Tornado of Terror yelling at them about how Saitama got in her way, before throwing a cacophony of insults at him about being bald. When Shunshi looked to see if either of his Senpai or Master were paying attention to the small hero's foul mouth, he saw that they were preoccupied talking about how he fought the strongest opponent of his life while on that ship.

As Shunshi continued to listen to Tornado of Terror yell insults at his Master from a distance, he was feeling a swirl of anger, sadness, and confusion while whispering to the number 2 S-Class hero "Please... Please stop talking."


	10. Quick Announcement

Hello, everyone. Sorry that this isn't an actual chapter.

First off, I'd like to thank everyone for the support that I've gotten on this story. When I started writing it, I never thought it would become even a fifth as popular as it is right now. I'd also like to apologize for how long it took me to write the newest chapter. All I can say in my defense was that I'd run into a couple tragic events during the time I was writing the most recent chapter, and I had also started my first ever semester of college.

Anyways, on to the topic of this announcement. In the next chapter, Shunshi will be getting his official Hero Name from the Hero Association and I'd like anyone who's interested to help me decide what it should be.

Here are the choices:

1: Spirit Fist

2: Yin Yang Dragon

3: Monster Mask

4: Other(The reason for this choice is, because I people want to send me there own ideas for his name. If this gets enough votes, then I'll select one of the names from the ones thought up by anyone who sent one in)

You can find the poll on my profile page. When I finish writing the next chapter(whenever that is) is when the poll will be going down. This announcement will be replaced by the next chapter when the time comes.


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